Gaza has experienced ‘16 years of de-development’

AFP | Geneva                                               

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

The Gaza Strip has lived through 16 years of de-development, the United Nations said yesterday, adding that the economic consequences of the Israel-Hamas war were “impossible to determine”.

“Gaza has experienced 16 years of de-development and suppressed human potential and the right to development,” the UN’s UNCTAD trade and development agency said in an annual report on the Palestinian economy. While the report focused on 2022, during a press conference UNCTAD officials could not ignore the current conflict.

“The economic consequences of the current and ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza are impossible to determine,” Richard Kozul-Wright, the director of UNCTAD’s globalisation and development strategies division, told a press conference. “What the report does document is the profound economic challenges facing a community under occupation, which in the case of Gaza is compounded by an economic blockade which began in 2007, along with intermittent military operations.”

The report on the state of the Palestinian economy in 2022 said the Gazan economy had been “hollowed” out, with 80% of the enclave’s population dependent on international aid. “With heightened political tensions and a long-stalled peace process, 2022 was one of the worst years for Palestinians in recent history,” the report said. It said the Palestinian economy had also been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Even though the Palestinian GDP grew by 3.9% in 2022, per capita real GDP was still 8.6% below its 2019 pre-pandemic level. In Gaza, real GDP per capita was 11.7% below the 2019 level and close to its lowest level since 1994,” the report said.

Palestinian GDP per capita is “currently at just eight% of that of Israel”, the report added. UNCTAD said that unemployment was at 45% in the Gaza Strip and 13% in the West Bank, with women and young people affected the most.

“The vicious circle of destruction and partial reconstruction needs to be broken by negotiating a peaceful solution, based on international law, and relevant UN and Security Council resolutions, to end hostilities, and by increasing donor support for the recovery of the war-torn economy,” the report concluded.

Germany calls for aid delivery

The German government on Wednesday called for aid delivery intervals into Gaza but argued that a full ceasefire would not be appropriate in the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

“In the current situation, trying to act as though we must make peace or have a ceasefire does not do justice to the facts,” government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit told a regular press briefing.

Erdogan says cancelling plans to visit Israel

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday he was cancelling plans to visit Israel because of its “inhumane” war against Hamas militants in Gaza.

“We had a project to go to Israel, but it was cancelled, we will not go,” Erdogan told ruling party lawmakers in parliament, adding that he viewed Hamas as “liberators” fighting for their own land.