Details of these developments and the “unprecedented destruction” to the Palestinian jobs market and the wider economy beyond Gaza and the West Bank are outlined in a new report from the ILO.
Ahead of the report’s publication, UN Secretary-General Gilbert Heungbo said the following at the 112th International Labor Conference in Geneva on Thursday: The Gaza Strip’s labor market has “literally collapsed.” Since “Terrible”Last October, terrorist attacks against Israel led by Hamas triggered Israel’s “ruthless war.”
“Today Gaza is in ruins. Livelihoods have collapsed and jobs have become scarce. “Labor rights have been eliminated,” he said. “This has been the most difficult year for Palestinian workers since 1967. “Never before has the situation been so bleak.”
hard data
According to data analyzed by the ILO and the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the unemployment rate in the Gaza Strip reached 79.1%.
Although not directly affected by the war, the occupied West Bank has also been severely affected by the crisis, with nearly one in three people unemployed.
“This figure brings the average unemployment rate across the two areas of OPT to 50.8%,” the authors said. the situation of workers in Arab-occupied territories; Before attention was paid to the actual figures, they were likely to be much higher as they did not include individuals who left the workforce entirely due to lack of opportunity.
Not surprisingly, over the past eight months, total economic output in Gaza has fallen by 83.5%, in the West Bank by 22.7%, and the overall OPT economy has fallen by almost 33%.
health relief breakthrough
In a related situation in Gaza on Friday, the UN health agency announced that despite “significant restrictions”, a fully loaded truck and a partially stacked trailer carrying medical aid had arrived in Gaza via the southern crossing of Kerem Shalom.
“These supplies will be distributed to health facilities to support the treatment of up to 44,000 people,” the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a post on X.
The aid includes treatment for non-communicable diseases including high blood pressure, heart disease, type 2 diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases, but much more aid is urgently needed through the still-closed Rafah crossing, the UN health agency claimed.
In a separate update, WHO reported that 464 attacks on healthcare have been recorded in Gaza since October 7.
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“Two-fifths (37%) of attacks occurred in Gaza City, nearly a quarter (23%) in North Gaza and more than a quarter (28%) in Khan Younis. I did. “WHO urges respect for international law and active protection of civilians and healthcare,” the UN agency asserted.
Rapha
The United Nations relief coordination office OCHA reported late Thursday that fewer than 100,000 people remain in the entire southern Rafah province.
OCHA added that “life-saving relief efforts have been significantly disrupted by ongoing hostilities following the forced evacuation of approximately one million people who are now fleeing and then moving to Khan Younis and Deir al-Bala.”
The disruption of fuel supplies passing through Rafah from Egypt has had a number of negative consequences, affecting “trucks, hospitals, sewage systems, desalination works and bakeries,” the UN aid office explained.
“Given current circumstances, relief convoys must still navigate active hostilities, impassable roads, unexploded ordnance, and recurring delays,” OCHA said.
Israel-Lebanon border clash is a serious concern: Guterres
Ongoing gunfights between Israeli forces and militants in southern Lebanon along the UN-patrolled Blue Line border are a source of serious concern, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday.
The UN Secretary-General called for an urgent ceasefire in a statement released this evening from his New York spokesman’s office.
“He is gravely concerned that the gunfight has not only devastated communities close to the Blue Line, but has also had a deeper impact in Lebanon and Israeli territory through the use of increasingly destructive weapons,” the statement continued.
“Such gunfights could spark a wider conflict with devastating consequences for the region.”
