More than one and a half million people are on the run, two-thirds of the jobs are gone, prices are exploding: the economy in Gaza is at rock bottom – and, according to the UN, has already been set back 16 years.
They continually stoke the fire in the small, self-made clay oven amidst the rubble. They bake thin flatbread over the embers. This is how people survive on the streets in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip without electricity or clean water.
He collects the wood from the rubble, says baker Saqr Abu Obaid, adding that the method of baking in a clay oven was last practiced 40 years ago: “People come to my small oven from 6 a.m. There isn’t enough flour. The price of yeast has risen from $1.30 to $11. We can no longer find clean water. Salt used to cost 30 cents a kilo. Now it’s $4.”
Economy has collapsed
Prices are skyrocketing. Now in the war there is exchange. The economy has collapsed. Abu Obaid is still working, but almost two-thirds of the few jobs in Gaza have been lost since the war began. That’s hundreds of thousands of jobs.
In the first month of the war, poverty increased by another 20 percent. A large part of the population was already living below the poverty line. Now more than one and a half million people are on the run.
“Tens of billions of dollars in damage”
The United Nations Development Program report paints a bleak picture. Richard Kozul heads the Department of Globalization and Development Strategies at the UN trade organization UNCTAD. “Gaza’s capital is being destroyed here,” he says. “The buildings, the hospitals. Estimating the damage when the fighting stops will be very, very difficult. It will be billions, tens of billions of dollars.”
The economist has followed many wars between Gaza and Israel. He calls the pattern of destruction and reconstruction a vicious circle. Only a two-state solution can end this, says Kozul. This presupposes that the infrastructure in Gaza is maintained. However, this is already partly not the case.
“It will continue until Hamas is destroyed”
Eyal Hulata is Israel’s former national security adviser. He says the war will continue after a ceasefire. The economic future of Gaza is irrelevant: “We have to do what we can to maintain a certain level of humanitarian aid.” The economy in Gaza is ruined; Hamas brought this upon its own people.
“Many buildings are broken and it will continue like this until Hamas is destroyed. There is no future for Gaza as long as Hamas controls Gaza,” says Hulata. It is unclear whether there will still be houses in which people can live after the war – and whether Israel will take part in the reconstruction.
UN: Economy set back 16 years
Abu Mahmoud el Hourani also doesn’t know whether his company still exists in northern Gaza. There he produced kitchens and staircases made of marble and aluminum. Ten apartments in which he had invested were destroyed, he says. The damage is estimated at $500,000.
“25 families have made a living from my company. Many now ask me if I can give them something,” says el Hourani. He doesn’t know whether or how he can rebuild his business because the destruction in Gaza is so massive. Now he is staying with a friend 20 kilometers south of Gaza City – along with 100 other refugees. They are all waiting for the war to end.
The United Nations has already undertaken an economic analysis: According to this, the economy in the Gaza Strip has already been set back 16 years to its 2007 level. It is the year that Hamas took control of Gaza and Israel began its blockade of the coastal strip.
Bettina Meier, ARD Tel Aviv, tagesschau, November 24th, 2023 2:49 p.m