Abdullah Al-Dardi, Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and Director of the United Nations Development Program for Arab States, confirmed that the disaster to which the Palestinian economy is exposed only occurs once every hundred years in history, explaining that the human development index in Gaza has gone back 69 years and the region The entire Arab world lost about $25 billion due to the Israeli war on Palestine and Lebanon.
This came in a speech by the Director of the United Nations Development Program for Arab States today during the launch event of the “Third Assessment of the Social and Economic Impacts of the Gaza War.” Issued by the United Nations Development Program and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), which provides updated estimates of the impact of the war on poverty, gross domestic product, unemployment and human development, a full year after the start of the war, as well as scenarios for possible recovery after reaching a halt.
Al-Dardari said that the entire Palestinian economy, not just the Gaza economy, lost more than 36% of its gross domestic product in one year due to the destruction in Gaza, and the losses resulting from the Israeli attacks in the West Bank.
p>He added, “This is a disaster that only occurs once every hundred years in history, noting that the Great Depression in the United States in 1929 only led to a decline in the American economy by 12 percent,” adding that the United Nations Development Program began working on the ground. Despite the continuation of the war, we were able to provide clean drinking water to about one hundred thousand Palestinians, and we began work to remove the flags and rubble. He added, “We contract with thousands of young Palestinian men and women to provide medical and engineering services to the Palestinian people, and we established two civil society centers in the Gaza Strip in light of the fact that all the buildings of civil society organizations were destroyed in order to allow their work to continue. We also provided support to small and medium-sized companies.”
He said, “Some may be surprised by the extent of the steadfastness in Gaza. We have established a school fully equipped from Gaza industry, and the waste treatment center is manufactured in Jenin, and we are working to make the priority for equipment to be from Gaza industry, then the West Bank, then the Arab region.” < /p>
He explained that the cost of early recovery in Gaza ranges between 2 and 3 billion dollars, explaining that this is not the reconstruction of Gaza, and that this assessment issued by ESCO and the United Nations Development Program is an attempt to shed light on what has been implemented and what the needs are because Humanitarian aid is not enough for recovery.
He added, “We must begin recovery and reconstruction efforts from today for ten years to bring Gaza’s situation to the level of 2022.” Stressing that Palestine needs $230 million in humanitarian aid annually, stressing that this funding for humanitarian aid is not sufficient to achieve recovery at all, and that recovery is not rebuilding some buildings, the issue is comprehensive development to recover some of the losses in this war.
He pointed out that the evaluation stated that 3 out of 4 of every population in Palestine suffer from poverty, and 2.6 million were added to those living below the poverty line within one year, one out of every two people. In Palestine, he is unemployed, as a result of restrictions, siege, war, etc. He said that the Human Development Index in Gaza went back 69 years, that is, to the stage before the start of calculating the Human Development Index.
He stressed that the State of Palestine as a whole went back 24 years in the index. Human development, meaning that all development biases in 24 years have disappeared, pointing out that the conclusion of the report indicates the absence of conditions for recovery because humanitarian aid is less than 20% of what the State of Palestine needs, in addition to the Israeli restrictions imposed on labor and the withholding of the Palestinian Authority’s clearing revenues. He said that the current situation, if it continues without change, we can say that there will be a 20% decline in the domestic product in Palestine in the coming years, adding, “The only scenario for full recovery is increasing annual aid, lifting restrictions on Palestinian workers, and returning Palestinian clearance revenues.” Providing $290 million annually for early recovery efforts, in addition to the funds allocated for humanitarian aid, and even this scenario will not achieve a return to 2022 levels until many years later.
He pointed out that 30% of the total conflicts in the world take place in Our region contains 5% of the world’s population, while 10% of the total refugees leave it, stressing that the impact of the conflicts on our region is very large.
He touched on the impact of the Israeli attacks on Lebanon, where the loss of the Lebanese economy amounted to 7.2%. % of the domestic product, and this does not include the destruction of homes and infrastructure, noting that the destruction of 50 thousand homes in Lebanon, which raises the loss to 9% of the Lebanese economy.
He said that the effects of the war have reached the Syrian economy, which It will lose 4.7% of its GDP, as a result of the Israeli wars in the region, and Jordan will lose 0.3%.
He added, “According to the assessment, the entire region has lost $25 billion due to the current war that has been raging since October 2023, The poor will increase by an additional 5 million poor people. He continued, “We need funding to prepare for the post-ceasefire phase. That year that we lose in planning and preparation is the most dangerous thing.” Stressing at the same time the need to also pay attention to the recovery in Lebanon and Syria, saying, “There is no recovery in the region without recovery in Lebanon, in Syria, in Jordan, and throughout the region.” For his part, Ambassador Muhannad Al-Aklouk said The Palestinian representative to the League of Arab States said that these numbers contained in this UN assessment express unprecedented economic and social losses in modern history, describing “what Israel is committing today in the Gaza Strip is a complete crime of genocide.” The Palestinian delegate to the Arab League indicated that 93% of the schools in the Gaza Strip were destroyed, and most of the population is displaced. For his part, Ambassador Hossam Zaki, Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab League, said in his intervention during the session that we are working with Arab countries to include the data contained in this report in the cases filed in the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice against Israel.
