The crisis in Gaza has wiped out 69 years of human development and stands as the most severe economic crisis ever recorded.
Gaza’s economy collapsed in 2024, with GDP down 83% to $362 million and cumulative losses over the 2023–2024 period reaching 87%, UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said in a new report.
GDP per capita in Gaza fell to $161 – among the world’s lowest. Inflation surged to 238%, unemployment hit 80%, and all 2.3 million people living in the enclave fell below the poverty line.
The post-October 2023 military operations have destroyed the economic foundations of Gaza and propelled it from de-development to utter ruin.
By April 2025, an estimated 70% of all structures had been damaged – including factories, homes, hospitals, schools, banks and essential energy, water, telecommunications and agricultural assets. Night-time luminosity, a proxy for economic activity, fell 73% between October 2023 and May 2025.
UN estimates suggest the crisis has erased 69 years of human development. It is the most severe crisis ever recorded based on the Uppsala (Sweden) Conflict Data Programme data set.
Decades of development erased across the Occupied Palestinian Territory
The West Bank is also undergoing its most severe economic downturn on record, driven by heightened insecurity, movement and access restrictions and the loss of productive opportunities in all sectors of the economy.
Across the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the steepest economic contraction on record has wiped out decades of progress.
By the end of 2024, GDP had dropped back to its 2010 level, while GDP per capita fell to 2003 levels. The Palestinian Human Development Index is projected to decline from 0.716 to 0.643, erasing a quarter of a century of hard-won progress.
Fiscal collapse and rising debt
The fiscal situation deteriorated sharply after October 2023, making 2024 one of the most challenging years for the Palestinian Government.
Revenue shortfalls, withheld fiscal transfers, a contracting economy and declining external support deepened an already acute crisis.
Between January 2019 and April 2025, cumulative fiscal deductions and withheld revenues amounted to an estimated $1.76 billion – equivalent to 12.8% of GDP in 2024 and 44% of total net revenues. The Government has struggled to pay salaries and deliver basic services.
Health spending, for example, has become increasingly reliant on arrears, with half of all health-care costs in 2022–2024 covered by delayed payments to private suppliers and NGOs, jeopardizing the continuity of essential health-care services.
By the end of 2024, public debt had increased by 11.2% to $4.2 billion. The Government also accumulated an additional $1.38 billion in arrears, pushing its total stock to $4.25 billion.
$70 billion and decades needed to rebuild Gaza
Even under optimistic scenarios of double-digit growth backed by substantial foreign aid, Gaza would take decades to return to pre-October 2023 conditions, UNCTAD warns.
The organization estimates reconstruction needs at over $70 billion and calls for a durable ceasefire, urgent humanitarian access and sustained international financing to stabilize public finances and rebuild the enclave’s shattered productive base.