'Staggering' unemployment in Gaza a year after war: UN

More than a year into Israel's war against Hamas, "nearly 100 per cent" of Gaza's population has been plunged into poverty with a ruined economy and "staggering" unemployment, the UN said on Thursday.

In the occupied West Bank, where violence has also surged since Hamas's October 7 attack last year that sparked the war in Gaza, the situation "has been equally concerning", the UN's International Labour Organisation said.

"The impact of the war in the Gaza Strip has taken a toll far beyond loss of life, desperate humanitarian conditions and physical destruction," Ruba Jaradat, the ILO's regional director for Arab States, said in a statement.

"It has fundamentally altered the socioeconomic landscape of Gaza," she warned. "The impact will be felt for generations to come."

In the Gaza Strip, "nearly 100 per cent of the population now lives in poverty", the ILO said.

It warned that "the significant economic contraction in the West Bank is estimated to have more than doubled the short-term poverty rate, rising from 12 percent in 2023 to 28 percent by mid-2024".

Unemployment in the West Bank surged to nearly 35 per cent since last October, "while in Gaza it averaged a staggering 79.7 percent", the ILO said.

The agency said the wider economic toll had also been "unprecedented" across the occupied Palestinian territories.

The West Bank saw gross domestic product contract by 21.7 per cent year-on-year, while GDP in the Gaza Strip nosedived 84.7 per cent, it said.

Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza after lasy year's October attack by Hamas, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures, including hostages killed in captivity.

Israel's retaliation has killed at least 42,409 people, the majority civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, which the UN considers reliable.

These figures also "reflect the shutdown of most economic activities in Gaza due to the destruction of homes and infrastructure, and the recurring displacement of workers and employers", the ILO said.