UN report: Gaza faces seven-decade setback and acute hunger crisis amid ongoing conflict

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - CAIRO — Development in Gaza has been set back by as much as 69 years, according to an assessment made by a UN-backed report.

Poverty in Palestine is also set to rise by 74.3% in 2024, impacting a further 2.61 million people who are newly impoverished.

The impact of the year-long war has caused acute hunger, with around 86% of the population experiencing crisis levels of hunger, according to the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UNESCWA).

Efforts to get food supplies into the territory have been hampered by Israel's blockade, as well as ongoing fighting and the breakdown of law and order.

High numbers of displaced mean that thousands of people are packed into squalid tent camps or buildings repurposed as shelters.

In August, Gaza began a campaign to vaccinate children against polio as fears rose the disease would spread with the majority of the territory's healthcare system destroyed.

The UNDP says that the Palestinian economy could be put on a restorative track to align with its pre-war development goals in 10 years, but this would require a comprehensive recovery and reconstruction plan that combines humanitarian aid and strategic investment in recovery and reconstruction.

The report says that lifting economic restrictions is also essential to Gaza's recovery.

Gaza has been under closure by land, sea and air since 2007. Restrictions on the movement of people, goods and technology imports have long impacted its economy before the intensification of Israeli strikes.

The UNDP estimates that Gaza's gross domestic product (GDP) will contract by 35.1% in 2024 with unemployment rising to 49.9%.

Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed over 42,000 people, as stated by the Hamas-run Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.

The organization added that humanitarian aid specifically allocated to Gaza's early post-war recovery would be crucial in its development.

“The assessment indicates that, even if humanitarian aid is provided each year, the economy may not regain its pre-crisis level for a decade or more. As conditions on the ground allow, the Palestinian people need a robust early recovery strategy," ESCWA Executive Secretary Rola Dashti said.

“Our assessments serve to sound the alarm over the millions of lives that are being shattered and the decades of development efforts that are being wiped out,” Dashti added.

Israel has said its war in Gaza is essential to wipe out Hamas and that its strikes and ongoing blockade are intended to target the militant group rather than civilians.

It has still faced increasing pressure from the UN and its key ally, the US, to address the current humanitarian situation.

Last week, the Biden administration warned that Israel could lose access to weapons funding if it did not increase the amount of humanitarian aid it is allowing into Gaza.

The UN sounded an alarm in early October that the amount of aid entering the Gaza Strip was at its lowest level in months, with the only three hospitals in northern Gaza facing severe shortages in key supplies.

Israel is currently targeting northern Gaza in an offensive it says is necessary to combat Hamas fighters who have regrouped in the territory's northern part.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that 85% of requests to get food into Gaza's north were denied by Israeli authorities.

COGAT, the Israeli-run body facilitating aid crossings into Gaza, has denied that crossings to the north have been closed. — Euronews