After six months of intense conflict in Gaza, the State of Palestine is experiencing a rapid and alarming increase in poverty rates, which have now reached 58.4 percent.
This means that almost 1.74 million more people have been pushed below the poverty line, struggling to make ends meet. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has also suffered a significant blow, plummeting by 26.9 percent, translating to a massive loss of US$7.1 billion compared to the GDP in 2023 if there had been no war.
These estimates were released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), highlighting the devastating impact of the ongoing conflict on the Palestinian people.
Every additional day that this war continues is exacting huge and compounding costs to Gazans and all Palestinians, now and in the medium and long term. Compared to our preliminary assessment, these new figures warn that the suffering in Gaza will not end when the war does,” said UNDP Administrator, Achim Steiner. “Unprecedented levels of human losses, capital destruction, and the steep rise in poverty in such a short period of time will precipitate a serious development crisis that jeopardizes the future of generations to come.”
According to projections, in a scenario where the war continues for nine months, poverty is estimated to more than double (increasing to 60.7 percent, 2.25 times of pre-war levels), raising the number of additional people pushed into poverty to more than 1.86 million, while the decrease of GDP would reach 29 percent with total losses of US$7.6 billion. The assessment also warns of a sharp decline in the Human Development Index (HDI), UNDP’s summary measure of wellbeing, as the setback in human development in the State of Palestine may exceed two decades—to earlier than 2004, when the HDI was first calculated for the State of Palestine.
