The rapidly rising death toll in Gaza has captured all the headlines ever since the Israel-Hamas war started in October 2023. With more than 32,000 people dead, mostly innocent women and children, the international agencies have decided to term the war catastrophic for Palestinians in Gaza. One of the latest reports released by the United Nations and World Bank has outlined the financial implications of the Israel-Hamas war as it estimated that $1.8 billion USD worth of critical infrastructure in Gaza has taken damage due to the conflict.
The 1.8 billion dollar amount is 97% of the combined economic output of the West Bank and Gaza in 2022. According to the report, the majority of the damage has occurred in the governorates of Gaza, North Gaa, and Khan Younis.
The report adds, “Over four-fifths of damages are concentrated in the two sectors of residential buildings (72% of the total) and the commerce, industry, and services sector (9% of the total), with the remaining 19% of damages sustained on other critical infrastructure and services such as education, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), health, energy, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), municipal services, and transport,”
The war between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas began on October 7th, 2023, after hundreds of Hamas militants barged into Israel’s territory and ended up killing more than 1,400 people. The Hamas terrorists also ended up taking more than 200 people hostage, and 150 of them are still in the group’s captivity in Gaza,
The interim damage assessment report also mentions the alarming state of food insecurity in Gaza and calls the region on the brink of famine, with acute malnutrition and food insecurity.
Palestinians in Gaza now make up 80% of all the people facing severe hunger or famine worldwide. Palestinians are also getting less than half of the daily water rations required for short-term emergency survival, and further reductions are likely as fuel supplies drop. More than a million people have now lost their homes.
