Lbreakthrough of the far right on the Israeli side and the end of the Mahmoud era Abbas on the Palestinian side were harbingers of political, security and economic perils. Decades of efforts, with signed agreements, billions of dollars in aid, cohorts of diplomats, hundreds of studies, have not resolved the Palestinian question. Half a century of occupation has helped shape a humanitarian disaster, and the last fifteen years have only precipitated a predictable cataclysm.
The European Union has poured billions of euros into supporting Palestinian development, to no avail. Hamas has become stronger by sowing discord and misery. It fed on the poverty of the inhabitants of the enclave, abandoned for the benefit of religious extremism and war. Israel let it happen. The rage that had been brewing in Gaza for years and the despair of its population were not enough to raise alarm.
Gaza’s political and geographic isolation has ruined development prospects. The land, air and sea blockade imposed by Israel since 2007 and the destruction of productive assets during consecutive episodes of violence led to the collapse of the Gazan economy, which found itself limited to trade, agriculture and traffic.
The destruction of the airport by Israel and the refusal to build a port completed the exclusion of Gaza from world trade. Dependent on international aid and transfers from the diaspora, the population was already suffering from shortages affecting the functioning of the economy. As of June 2023, the unemployment rate in Gaza stood at 46.4%, compared to 34.8% in 2006.
Population growth has exacerbated the humanitarian crisis. The population density, combined with the blockade, has made the enclave an open-air prison. Today, Gaza is a field of ruins. After more than two months of war, the situation remains critical with aid largely insufficient to cover the needs of the population. Health risks and the deterioration of humanitarian conditions, coupled with the impossibility of delivering sufficient aid, raise fears of the worst.
Complex question
The loss of income from a suffocated Palestinian economy, combined with Israeli security policy and, now, the war in Gaza, is costly. For Israel, the costs will amount to at least 1.5% of gross domestic product, with the recall of 360,000 reservists (about 10% of the active population) who temporarily left their jobs. The war and mobilization have already led to a decline in demand and supply, exacerbated by the sharp reduction in the “imported” workforce, made up of more than 200,000 Palestinian workers no longer able to travel to Israeli territory.
You have 55% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.