Nearly 66 percent of jobs lost in Gaza since Israel-Hamas war broke out

Nearly 66 percent of jobs have been lost in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7, according to new data from the International Labour Organization (ILO)

Nearly 66 percent of jobs have been lost in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7, according to new data from the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Palestinian statistics office.

Palestinians have seen their employment reduced by two-thirds in the Gaza Strip – equivalent to 192,000 jobs – since the outbreak of the war, the ILO and Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) said on Wednesday.

The spillover effect on the economy of the occupied West Bank was also significant, with a one-third reduction in employment – equivalent to 276,000 jobs.

The devastating loss in the job market in Gaza exacerbates the already dire conditions which prevailed in the blockaded territory even before the current conflict, “rendering it essentially uninhabitable”, the report said.

Palestinians in Gaza have long grappled with persistently high rates of poverty, vulnerability and one of the highest unemployment rates in the world, it noted.