The International Labour Organization reported on Monday that more than 60% of jobs in Gaza had been lost since the Israel-Hamas conflict, contributing to the enclave’s precarious economic situation.
The ILO stated in its initial estimate of the impact of Israeli ground and air strikes on Gaza, which began following Hamas militants’ deadly cross-border incursion on October 7 that the losses total 182,000 jobs in the small Palestinian territory.
“Our initial assessment of the repercussions of the tragic current crisis on the Palestinian labor market has yielded extremely worrying results, which will only worsen if the conflict continues”, stated Ruba Jaradat, ILO Regional Director for the Arab States, adding that the crisis would reverberate for many years to come for jobs and businesses.
Even before the war and the tightening of Israel’s economic embargo on the Gaza Strip, about half of the 2.3 million Palestinians living in the narrow coastal enclave were poor.
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