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Israeli aggression has pushed Palestinian economy into record collapse: UN

Iran Press TV

Tuesday, 25 November 2025 3:50 PM

A United Nations report says the economy of the West Bank is facing its most severe collapse to date, which it blamed on the ongoing restrictions on movement and trade imposed by Israel in the occupied territory and its genocidal war on Gaza.

Published by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on November 24, the analysis revealed that the territory's economy has suffered one of the 10 worst global collapses since 1960, due to two years of Israeli military assaults and systemic restrictions.

"Extensive damage to infrastructure, productive assets and public services," the report stated, "has reversed decades of socioeconomic progress" in both Gaza and the West Bank, including East al-Quds.

"The situation in Gaza constitutes the most severe economic crisis on record," UNCTAD said. The besieged Palestinian territory, it said, is being propelled into "utter ruin" following the devastation inflicted by Israeli attacks.

According to the report, Gaza's GDP plummeted by 83 percent in 2024 compared to the previous year, resulting in an 87-percent contraction over two years. It also left the blockaded territory with a GDP of just $362 million and placed it among the poorest regions in the world.

Israeli attacks have damaged nearly 174,500 structures, while the two-decade blockade has led to near-total dependence on external aid, according to the report.

Despite a six-week ceasefire with the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, the economic crisis in Gaza continued to deepen due to ongoing Israeli bombardment.

By the end of 2024, overall Palestinian GDP had regressed to its 2010 level, and GDP per capita had returned to 2003 levels, erasing 22 years of development in less than two years.

The situation in the West Bank has also witnessed the most severe downturn on record, driven by movement restrictions, settlement expansion, and job losses, exacerbated by Israel's withholding of fiscal revenues owed to the Palestinian Authority (PA)—amounting to $4 billion, as reported by the PA.

UNCTAD estimated that the cost of reconstruction and recovery in Gaza alone will exceed $70 billion, and that restoring GDP levels seen before October 2023 could take decades, even with substantial international aid.

The agency urged a durable ceasefire, the restoration of fiscal transfers, and the easing of restrictions on trade and movement as minimum conditions for economic survival.

It also called for "immediate and substantial intervention by the international community to halt the economic freefall, address the humanitarian crisis, and lay the groundwork for lasting peace and development."