The Palestinian economy shrank by 35% on an annual basis, during the first quarter of this year, as the Israeli occupation continued its aggression against the Gaza Strip.
This came according to preliminary estimates issued by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics on Thursday, which said that “the economic system of the Gaza Strip has completely collapsed.”
The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics said:
- The Gaza Strip economy contracted during the first quarter of 2024 by 86% on an annual basis, accompanied by a decline in the West Bank economy by 25%.
- All economic activities recorded a sharp decline in value added, as mining, manufacturing, water and electricity activities recorded a decline of 63% in Palestine.
- Construction activity also shrank by 51%, agriculture, forestry and fishing activity by 33%, and wholesale and retail trade activity by 36%.
- The value of the gross domestic product during the first quarter of 2024 in the West Bank amounted to two billion and 474 million dollars, and in the Gaza Strip it amounted to 92 million dollars.
- The per capita GDP in Palestine at constant prices reached $491 during the first quarter of 2024, recording a decline of 36% compared to the corresponding quarter of 2023. The per capita GDP in the West Bank declined by 26% compared to the corresponding quarter, In the Gaza Strip, it decreased by 86% compared to the corresponding quarter.
At the beginning of this month, the International Labor Organization said that the unemployment rate in the Gaza Strip had reached about 80% since the outbreak of the Israeli war on Gaza in October, which raises the average unemployment throughout the Palestinian territories to more than 50%.
The United Nations organization stated, in its fourth assessment of the impact of the war on employment, that the unemployment rate reached 79.1% in the Gaza Strip, and about 32% in the West Bank, bringing the total rate to 50.8%.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has been waging a war on Gaza that has resulted in more than 124,000 Palestinians killed and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing amid massive destruction and famine that claimed the lives of dozens of children.
Israel continues its war despite two UN Security Council resolutions calling for an immediate halt, and orders from the International Court of Justice to end the invasion of Rafah, take measures to prevent acts of “genocide”, and improve the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza.