WASHINGTON: The Israel-Hamas war in Gaza is having a severe impact on the Palestinian economy, the World Bank said Tuesday, adding that a sharp economic contraction is likely this year and next.
“The loss of life, speed and extent of damages to fixed assets and reduction in income flows across the Palestinian territories are unparalleled,” the World Bank said in a statement.
The conflict, now dragging into its third month, has resulted in the death of more than 18,400 people in Gaza, the majority of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
The violence was sparked by Hamas’ cross-border attacks on October 7 that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli figures, and saw around 240 hostages taken back to Gaza.
The UN estimates 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced by the war, half of them children.
UN agencies and aid groups fear the Palestinian territory will soon be overwhelmed by starvation and disease, and are pleading with Israel to boost efforts to protect civilians.
In a new analysis published Tuesday, the World Bank estimated that, as of mid-November, around 60 percent of information and communication infrastructure as well as health and education facilities had been damaged or destroyed.
And 70 percent of commerce-related infrastructure had been crippled or ruined.
Almost half of all primary, secondary and tertiary roads were also damaged or destroyed, and more than half a million people were living without a home due to the conflict.
Beyond the immediate human cost, the Israel-Hamas conflict has also “severely impacted the Palestinian economy,” the World Bank said.
Gaza’s contribution to the overall Palestinian economy, which includes the West Bank, had already shrunk from around 36 percent in 2005 to just 17 percent last year, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.
Israel’s fierce response to the Hamas attacks on October 7 has pushed Gaza’s unemployment rate up to around 85 percent, while its decision to shut the door to Palestinian workers from the West Bank has put almost 200,000 people out of work.
Despite Gaza’s small contribution to the economic figures, the World Bank now expects the overall Palestinian economy to contract by 3.7 percent this year, down sharply from its pre-war forecast of a 3.2 percent increase.
Next year, the situation is expected to be even worse.
Whereas the World Bank previously anticipated growth of 3.0 percent in 2024, it now expects an overall contraction of 6.0 percent — on the assumption that the severity of the conflict decreases next year.
If the war drags on, the economic impact could deteriorate further.
Following the onset of the war, prices in Gaza jumped by 12 percent, on average, in October, the Bank said, reflecting “pent-up demand for products that are increasingly difficult to find on the local markets.”
By contrast, consumer inflation in the West Bank rose by just 0.1 percent over the same period.
In response to the conflict, the World Bank unveiled financial support on Tuesday to provide “emergency relief for the affected people of Gaza.”
The development lender announced an additional $20 million in funds for medical care, humanitarian needs, and financing for food vouchers and parcels in the besieged Palestinian territory.
This comes on top of the $15 million it has already delivered, it added.
Palestinian economy severely impacted by Israel-Hamas war: World Bank
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Palestinian economy severely impacted by Israel-Hamas war: World Bank
- UN agencies and aid groups fear the Palestinian territory will soon be overwhelmed by starvation and disease, and are pleading with Israel to boost efforts to protect civilians
Cyprus says maritime aid shipments to Gaza ‘on track’
The vessels were shuttling between Gaza and the east Mediterranean island
NICOSIA: Four ships from the United States and France are transporting aid from Larnaca port to the Gaza Strip amid the spiralling humanitarian crisis there, the Cyprus presidency said on Tuesday.
Victor Papadopoulos from the presidential press office told state radio 1,000 tons of aid were shipped from Cyprus to the besieged Palestinian territory between Friday and Sunday.
He said the vessels were shuttling between Gaza and the east Mediterranean island, a distance of about 360 kilometers (225 miles).
Large quantities of aid from Britain, Romania, the United Arab Emirates, the United States and other countries have accumulated at Larnaca port.
Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides told reporters on Tuesday the maritime aid effort was “on track.”
“We have substantial assistance from third countries that want to contribute to this effort,” he said.
The aid shipped from Cyprus is entering Gaza via a temporary US-built floating pier, where the shipments are offloaded for distribution.
The United Nations has warned of famine as Gaza’s 2.4 million people face shortages of food, safe water, medicines and fuel amid the Israel-Hamas war that has devastated the coastal territory.
Aid deliveries by truck have slowed to a trickle since Israeli forces took control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing with Egypt in early May.
The war in Gaza broke out after Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.
Two days after the war broke out, Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered a “complete siege” on the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 35,647 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Daesh attack in Syria kills three soldiers: war monitor
- The militants “attacked a site where... regime forces were stationed“
- The Syrian army had sent forces to the area, where Daesh attacks are common
BEIRUT: Daesh group militants killed three Syrian soldiers in an attack Tuesday on an army position in the Badia desert, a war monitor said.
The militants “attacked a site where... regime forces were stationed,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that a lieutenant colonel and two soldiers died.
The Syrian army had sent forces to the area, where Daesh attacks are common, ahead of an expected wider sweep, said the Britain-based Observatory which has a network of sources inside the country.
In an attack on May 3, Daesh fighters killed at least 15 Syrian pro-government fighters when they targeted three military positions in the desert, the Observatory had reported.
Daesh overran large swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014, proclaiming a so-called caliphate and launching a reign of terror.
It was defeated territorially in Syria in 2019, but its remnants still carry out deadly attacks, particularly against pro-government forces and Kurdish-led fighters in Badia desert.
Syria’s war has claimed more than half a million lives and displaced millions more since it erupted in March 2011 with Damascus’s brutal repression of anti-government protests.
At least 9 Egyptian women and children die when vehicle slides off ferry and plunges into Nile River
At least 9 Egyptian women and children die when vehicle slides off ferry and plunges into Nile River
- The accident, which happened in Monshat el-Kanater town in Giza province, also injured nine other passengers
CAIRO: At least nine Egyptian women and children died Tuesday when a small bus carrying about two dozen people slid off a ferry and plunged into the Nile River just outside Cairo, health authorities said.
The accident, which happened in Monshat el-Kanater town in Giza province, injured nine other passengers, the Health Ministry said in a statement. Giza is one of three provinces forming Greater Cairo.
Six of the injured were treated at the site while three others were transferred to hospitals. The ministry didn’t elaborate on their injuries.
A list of the nine dead obtained by The Associated Press showed four were minors.
Giza provincial Gov. Ahmed Rashed said the bus was retrieved from the river and rescue efforts were still underway as of midday Tuesday.
The cause of the accident was not immediately clear.
According to the state-owned Akhbar daily, about two dozen passengers, mostly women, were in the vehicle heading to work when the accident occurred. It said security forces detained the vehicle driver.
Ferry, railway and road accidents are common in Egypt, mainly because of poor maintenance and lack of regulations. In February, a ferry carrying day laborers sank in the Nile in Giza, killing at least 10 of the 15 people on board.
Syrian first lady Asma Assad has leukemia, presidency says
- Statement stated that Asma would undergo a special treatment protocol that would require her to isolate
DUBAI: Syria’s first lady, Asma Assad, has been diagnosed with leukemia, the Syrian presidency said on Tuesday, almost five years after she announced she had fully recovered from breast cancer.
The statement said Asma, 48, would undergo a special treatment protocol that would require her to isolate, and that she would step away from public engagements as a result.
In August 2019, Asma said she had fully recovered from breast cancer that she said had been discovered early.
Since Syria plunged into war in 2011, the British-born former investment banker has taken on the public role of leading charity efforts and meeting families of killed soldiers, but has also become hated by the opposition.
She runs the Syria Trust for Development, a large NGO that acts as an umbrella organization for many of the aid and development operations in Syria.
Last year, she accompanied her husband, President Bashar Assad ,on a visit to the United Arab Emirates, her first known official trip abroad with him since 2011. She met Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, the Emirati president’s mother, during a trip seen as a public signal of her growing role in public affairs.
Yemen’s Houthis say they downed US drone over Al-Bayda province
- The Houthis said last Friday they downed another US MQ9 drone over the southeastern province of Maareb
DUBAI: Yemen’s Houthis downed a US MQ9 drone over Al-Bayda province in southern Yemen, the Iran-aligned group’s military spokesperson said in a televised statement on Tuesday.
Yahya Saree said the drone was targeted with a locally made surface-to-air missile and that videos to support the claim would be released.
The Houthis said last Friday they downed another US MQ9 drone over the southeastern province of Maareb.
The group, which controls Yemen’s capital and most populous areas of the Arabian Peninsula state, has attacked international shipping in the Red Sea since November in solidarity with the Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas militants, drawing US and British retaliatory strikes since February.
