A new UN report has painted a grim picture of the devastation of the collapsing Palestinian economy after a month of war and Israel’s siege of Gaza.
Gross domestic product shrank 4 percent in the West Bank and Gaza in the first month of the war, sending more than 400,000 people into poverty.
Such an economic impact has not been seen in the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine, nor in any previous war between Israel and Hamas, the UN said.
The rapid assessment of the economic consequences of the Gaza war released Thursday by the United Nations Development Program and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia was the first UN report to show the devastating impact of the conflict, especially in the Palestinians.
If the war continues for a second month, the UN projects that Palestinian GDP, which was $20.4 billion before the war began, will fall 8.4%, a loss of $1.7 billion. And if the conflict lasts a third month, the Palestinian GDP will fall by 12%, with losses of 2.5 billion dollars and more than 660,000 people plunged into poverty, it projects.
