ALBAWABA - According to the United Nations, the war in Gaza has caused the unemployment rate in the bombarded Palestinian territory to rise to a staggering 79.1 percent. The International Labour Organization (ILO) also reported that the crisis has affected the occupied West Bank, with unemployment there reaching almost 32 percent.
However, these figures "do not account for those who have left the labour force altogether as job prospects proved unattainable", the report noted, adding that "the actual number of those who have lost their jobs is therefore even higher than what the unemployment figures suggest."
According to the ILO, over the previous eight months, the actual gross domestic product of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip fell by 22.7 percent and 83.5 percent, respectively, as reported by AFP.
As of June 7, the Israeli aggression on Gaza strip has resulted in the killing of over 36,731 Palestinians, and injury of more than 83,530, according to Gaza Ministry of Health, with at least 28 deaths caused by malnutrition as famine spreads due to blocking of humanitarian aid to the strip by the Israeli government.
“Our new bulletin shows that the grim toll the war in the Gaza Strip has taken on human lives, and the desperate humanitarian situation it has caused, are accompanied by widespread devastation of economic activities and livelihoods,” Ruba Jaradat, the ILO regional director for Arab states has stated.
She noted that in Gaza, where pproximately 50% of its 2.3 million inhabitants suffered from poverty prior to the war, per Reuters, “livelihoods are shattered and work is scarce. Labour rights have been decimated,” adding that “this has been the hardest year for Palestinian workers since 1967. Never before has the situation been this bleak.
