“What we see today is extremely worrying,” he said. “Gaza is undergoing the most rapid and damaging economic collapse ever recorded.”
Gaza’s GDP falls by 83 percent
UNCTAD data shows that in 2024, Gaza’s GDP plummeted 83 percent compared to the previous year.
GDP per capita fell to just $161 a year, less than 50 cents a day, among the lowest in the world.
Gaza’s economy is now only 13 percent of its size in 2022.
Economist Mutasim Elagraa, who coordinates UNCTAD’s program supporting the Palestinian people, said the collapse was so severe that it had erased seven decades of human development in the enclave.
“Gaza’s economy has lost 87 percent of its value since 2022,” he said. “GDP per capita has returned to the levels of 22 years ago. This is the worst economic crisis ever recorded in recent decades.”
Elagraa warned that national unemployment has reached 50 percent and that unemployment in Gaza now exceeds 80 percent. “Multidimensional poverty now affects all Gazans,” he added.
The West Bank also faces its worst crisis
The West Bank is experiencing the worst contraction ever recorded: GDP will fall by 17 percent in 2024 and per capita income will fall by almost 19 percent.
UNCTAD says that the combination of:
- growing insecurity,
- intensification of movement and access restrictions,
- expand settlements and
- loss of access to 60 percent of West Bank land
has “suppressed the economy for decades” and severely limits future recovery.
Moreno said the fiscal situation facing the Palestinian government is now “the worst in its history,” driven by the collapse of withheld tax revenues and transfers, which account for more than two-thirds of Palestinian tax revenues.
Children from Gaza study in a UNICEF safe learning center.
Destroyed education system: human capital ‘set back a generation’
The report warns that the destruction of all schools and universities in Gaza has left children without education for more than two years, a loss of human capital that will harm society “for generations to come.”
Elagraa said this alone represents the collapse of a quarter century of human development, adding that “education, skills and the entire basis of human development have been shattered. Gaza has lost 70 years of human development.”
$70 billion needed to rebuild; recovery will take decades
According to joint estimates by the UN, the European Union and the World Bank, more than $70 billion will be needed to rebuild Gaza.
Elagraa said that even in the most optimistic scenario, with full access to reconstruction materials and generous international aid, “it will take decades for Gaza to recover the level of economic activity it had before the last conflict.”
He added that simply removing the debris could take 22 years, based on previous reconstruction efforts, and that it could take up to 10 years just to remove unexploded ordnance.
Ceasefire is essential and humanitarian access “cannot wait”
The three UNCTAD speakers emphasized that an economic recovery is not possible without a lasting ceasefire.
Moreno said the ceasefire agreed to in October 2025 offers a “critical opportunity” but warned that assistance must flow now.
“Humanitarian assistance cannot wait,” he said. “A lasting ceasefire is essential to stabilize the economy and allow reconstruction to begin.”
Elagraa added that development could only restart when:
- humanitarian goods can enter freely,
- Reconstruction materials are allowed, and
- Movement and access restrictions are eased.
He described recent improvements as “positive but slow, frustrating but moving in the right direction.”
Agriculture devastated: 86 percent of cropland damaged
UNCTAD confirmed that Gaza’s agricultural sector has been “seriously paralyzed.”
Drawing on comments from UNCTAD Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan, officials said:
- 86 percent of cropland has been damaged.
- 83 percent of water wells destroyed
- 71 percent of greenhouses damaged
- Only 1.5 percent of agricultural land remains usable
- 89 percent of water and sanitation facilities are destroyed.
Soil contamination by explosives (detonated and unexploded) will require significant international intervention.