The Gaza Strip has experienced 16 years of de-development, the United Nations warned Wednesday, adding that the economic consequences of the Israel-Palestine conflict were "impossible to determine."
The economic situation in the Palestinian enclave has been in a dire state since last year, even before the latest conflict broke out, according to an annual report by the U.N.'s Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
"Gaza has experienced 16 years of de-development and suppressed human potential and the right to development," the agency said.
While the report focused on 2022, during a press conference UNCTAD officials could not ignore the current conflict.
Israel launched a complete siege and unprecedented strikes on Gaza after a surprise cross-border attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas on Oct. 7.
Israeli bombing has now killed more than 5,800 people in Gaza, nearly half of them children, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry.
Some 1,400 people are said to have been killed in Israel.
"The economic consequences of the current and ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza are impossible to determine," Richard Kozul-Wright, the director of UNCTAD's globalization and development strategies division, told a press conference.
"What the report does document is the profound economic challenges facing a community under occupation, which in the case of Gaza is compounded by an economic blockade which began in 2007, along with intermittent military operations."
The report on the state of the Palestinian economy in 2022 said the Gazan economy had been "hollowed" out, with 80% of the enclave's population dependent on international aid.
"With heightened political tensions and a long-stalled peace process, 2022 was one of the worst years for Palestinians in recent history," the report said.
It said the Palestinian economy had also been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Even though the Palestinian gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 3.9% in 2022, per capita real GDP was still 8.6% below its 2019 pre-pandemic level. In Gaza, real GDP per capita was 11.7% below the 2019 level and close to its lowest level since 1994," the report said.
Palestinian GDP per capita is "currently at just 8% of that of Israel", the report added.
UNCTAD said that unemployment was at 45% in the Gaza Strip and 13% in the West Bank, with women and young people affected the most.
"The vicious circle of destruction and partial reconstruction needs to be broken by negotiating a peaceful solution, based on international law, and relevant U.N. and Security Council resolutions, to end hostilities, and by increasing donor support for the recovery of the war-torn economy," the report concluded.
