GENEVA (Reuters) – The unemployment rate in the West Bank and Gaza Strip could exceed 50% under the impact of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, according to a report from the International Labor Organization (ILO) published on Monday.
The Palestinian population has lost more than 500,000 jobs since October 7 and the start of Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip, launched in response to the Hamas attack. If the fighting continues until the end of March, the ILO estimates that the unemployment rate will soar to 57%.
The destruction of infrastructure, schools, hospitals and businesses in the Gaza Strip “has decimated entire economic sectors and paralyzed the job market, which will have unimaginable repercussions on the lives of generations of Palestinians”, he said. alarmed the ILO regional director for Arab States, Ruba Jaradat.
In the Gaza Strip, nearly 200,000 jobs were lost, representing about two-thirds of the total positions in the enclave.
Read also…
The West Bank is facing a situation of “quasi-containment” as more than 650 temporary or permanent checkpoints stifle economic activity, the report specifies. More than 300,000 positions have been lost, approximately a third of the territory’s total positions.
(Editor Emma Farge, French version Corentin Chappron, edited by Sophie Louet)
©2024 Thomson Reuters, all rights reserved. Reuters content is the intellectual property of Thomson Reuters or its third party content providers. Any copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. “Reuters” and the Reuters Logo are trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies.