Unemployment Nears 80% in Gaza

The International Labor Organization (ILO) announced on Friday that the unemployment rate in the Gaza Strip has reached nearly 80% since the outbreak of the war with Israel in October.

This elevates the average unemployment rate in the Palestinian territories to over 50%.

According to the UN-affiliated organization's fourth assessment of the war's impact on employment, the unemployment rate reached 79.1% in Gaza and around 32% in the West Bank, bringing the total rate to 50.8%.

"This excludes Palestinians who have given up on finding a job," Ruba Jaradat, ILO Regional Director for Arab States, said. "The situation is much worse."

Israel launched a ground and air campaign on Gaza in response to an attack by Hamas on October 7, resulting in, according to Israeli statistics, the deaths of around 1,200 people and the detention of 253 hostages.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza reports that more than 36,500 people have been killed since then in the territory, which has a population of 2.3 million.

"Imagine with this very high level of unemployment, people will not be able to secure food for themselves and for their families," Jaradat said.

"This is also impacting their health... Even if they have money, there are no hospitals that can accommodate the catastrophic situation there."

Economically, the real gross domestic product (GDP) has contracted by about 33% in the Palestinian territories since the start of the war.

The contraction is estimated at around 83.5% in the Gaza Strip and 22.7% in the West Bank, according to data published by the International Labor Organization.