Gaza City- Alaa Alzanin, his wife, five children, 71-year-old mother and sister huddled in a small tent at a U.N.-run school in central Gaza, where they were seeking refuge after losing their home in Beit Hanoon during the Israeli war. They have been displaced eight times and the tent now serves as their refuge from the rain and winter cold.
Arzanin, 41, is unable to support his family because he is unemployed. He is a day laborer, but like hundreds of thousands of others in Gaza, he is unemployed.
“Now I have no job and cannot support my family,” he told Al Jazeera, adding that he had worked in the infrastructure and agriculture sectors.
“I used to use an ax to create water channels between trees, plow the soil around it, spray pesticides, and grow tomatoes and cucumbers. I used to work from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. and was paid 40 to 50 shekels [$13-$15] every day. “
Majed Hamouda’s family is moved to a classroom in Gaza City [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
Another person without an income is Majed Hamouda. The 53-year-old man from Jabaliya in northern Gaza suffers from polio and his wife is a thalassemia carrier. He has five children and is currently sheltering in a camp at Remar Community School. Unable to work due to poor health, he relies on financial assistance from the Ministry of Development and charities. His aid payments had stopped since the outbreak of the war.
“We are like dead people but not yet buried, we only see the living, yes, I swear. If someone destroys your home and kicks you into the street like a dog, even dogs live a better life than us,” Hammouda told Al Jazeera.
“No one kicks a dog on the street, but we [kicked out] and displaced on the streets,” he explained, as one of his daughters began to cry.
Sometimes, Hammouda’s family has nothing to eat, so the father sends his only son to the streets to collect plastic and garbage to sell so he can support the family.
Yaqoub Hamoud’s certificate shows his achievements in winning the North Gaza Education Directorate’s “My Little Science Project” competition [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
“My youngest son Yakub is the first in the fourth grade of Northern School. He successfully completed eight science experiments among his peers and won the Ministry of Education’s Little Scientist Award. Now, I sadly watch him collecting nylon to burn for cooking and chasing hot meals in the camp. Sometimes I cry when I watch him,” he explained.
“Eating tomatoes or cucumbers is now a dream, it’s inhumane.”
After more than two years of war, Israel has almost completely destroyed the Gaza Strip, leaving behind Hunger crises and widespread famine. The U.N. World Food Program says supplies entering the besieged enclave cannot meet the nutritional needs of local residents. With only two crossing points into the Palestinian territory open and Israel restricting deliveries, aid entering the territory falls well short of the daily target of 2,000 tons.
A report released by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics in mid-October stated that during the Israeli war, the unemployment rate in Palestine rose to 50%, and the unemployment rate in the Gaza Strip rose to 80%. The bureau also said that 550,000 people across Palestine are unemployed.
(Al Jazeera)
Reported by united nations conference on trade and development UNCTAD stated that as of the end of last year, Palestinian gross domestic product (GDP) had fallen back to the 2010 level, and per capita GDP had returned to the 2003 level, erasing 22 years of development gains in two years.
Maher Altaba, director-general of the Gaza Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told Al Jazeera: “Before the war, the Gaza Strip experienced economic growth and many commercial, tourist and industrial projects were opened, making it a haven for many investments in various industries.”
However, by 2024, the enclave’s GDP fell by 83% compared to the previous year, and by 87% in two years, to $362 million. GDP per capita plummeted to 161 US dollars, ranking among the lowest in the world.
Historically, Gaza’s private sector has been its largest economic engine, accounting for a large portion of its gross domestic product.
“It is the main driving force in the Gaza Strip, with small and medium-sized enterprises as its backbone in the past, contributing more than 52% of employment opportunities in the region,” Altaba explained. He added that the agricultural sector has achieved self-sufficiency in many products and that the Gaza Strip accounts for about 17% of Palestinian GDP.
But since Israel imposed a land, sea and air blockade in 2007, the Gaza Strip’s economy has been underperforming until October 2023.
Some local Palestinians estimate that 63% of the region’s population was at the poverty line before the war, and the British government estimates that about 80% of the population relied on humanitarian aid before that.
The Gaza government estimates that 90% of all sectors, including housing and infrastructure, have now been destroyed. But it said there were plans to repair the economy and create jobs, but that would depend on a variety of factors.
“Supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as they are best able to absorb labor in the short term, and regulating the market and preventing monopolies caused by import restrictions – which lead to severe price distortions and high inflation – are urgently needed to solve this problem,” Ismail Tawabuta, director of the Gaza government media office, told Al Jazeera. He estimated the total economic losses at $70 billion.
“We aim to build productive projects, not just relief efforts, as well as temporary and emergency employment programs for young people, graduates and affected workers… In addition, we build accurate economic databases to support decision-making and the development of future economic policies,” he said. This would require the reopening of all crossing points between Israel and the Gaza Strip and allow the free entry of raw materials, production inputs and spare parts without restrictions, he said.
“Key production sectors [industry, agriculture and services] It must be re-established as a real way to create jobs and reduce dependence on aid,” he said.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s ceasefire and peace plan has yet to be fully implemented by Israel, and the second phase of the plan remains unclear.
But what is clear is that Gaza faces challenges in economic recovery and emerging from the ashes of war.
A makeshift kitchen area next to the Ara family’s tent, with rudimentary and unsterilized kitchen utensils [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
As for Arzanin and his wife, Maryam, who is three months pregnant, they now have some food but still no income.
Mariam told Al Jazeera: “We are well fed with the hot meals delivered to the camp… but it is not nutritious and we still want to eat food we cannot afford.”
“We saw everything in the market but we couldn’t buy everything for the children; they told us we wanted bananas, apples, fish and eggs and we only got a small amount but not enough and only enough for them to eat,” she said.
“I’m pregnant, I need proper food and supplements, my teeth are falling out and I haven’t had calcium in my food for two years. Alhamdulillah!”