Urdu   /   Kannada   /   Nawayathi

Occupation of Gaza cost $16.7B over 11 years: UN

share with us

GENEVA, 26 Nov 2020 [Fik/News Sources]: The cumulative economic cost from 2007–2018 of the Israeli occupation on the Palestinian city of Gaza, which has one of the world's highest unemployment rates with more than half its population living below the poverty line, is estimated at $16.7 billion, a UN report said Wednesday.

The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) released the report titled "Economic costs of the Israeli occupation for the Palestinian people: The Gaza Strip under closure and restrictions,” which focused on the costs only from the prolonged closure and military operations in Gaza during the period.

It estimates the cost to be six times Gaza's GDP in 2018 or 107% of the total Palestinian GDP.

The report projects that Gaza's poverty rate in 2017 could have been 15% without the closure and military operations -- more than a quarter of the current 56%.

The poverty gap could have been 4.2%, one-fifth of the current 20%.

Since the Palestinian resistance group Hamas took control of Gaza in June 2007, 2 million Palestinians have been under a prolonged Israeli closure and severe economic and movement restrictions that amount to a blockade in the 365 square kilometer (141 square mile) area, said the report.

Moreover, the Gaza Strip has been the subject of three major rounds of military hostilities since 2008.

"The result is the near-collapse of the regional Gaza economy while trade is severely restricted from the rest of the Palestinian economy and the world,” it said.

Between 2007 and 2017, Gaza's poverty rate increased from 40% to 56%, the poverty gap increased from 14% to 20% and the annual minimum cost of eliminating poverty quadrupled from $209 million to $838 million (constant 2015 USD).

"The thing about Gaza is the entire economy is informal," said Richard Kozul-Wright, who heads UNCTAD's division on globalization and development strategies.

He said this was exacerbated by the nature of the blockade on Gaza by Israel and "periodic military interventions."

Prayer Timings

Fajr فجر
Dhuhr الظهر
Asr أسر
Maghrib مغرب
Isha عشا