UNCTAD warns that Gaza is experiencing the worst economic crisis on record after a military offensive beginning in October 2023. The report finds 92% of businesses damaged or destroyed, daily per capita GDP at $0.58, prices up 274% since 2022, and industrial and agricultural output down 94%. More than 73,000 people have been killed and over 90% of working-age residents are unemployed. UNCTAD also warns the West Bank faces financial strain and the Palestinian territories risk a banking collapse.
UN: Gaza Endures 'Worst Economic Crisis on Record' as Economy Collapses
Gazans have been relying on food handouts (BASHAR TALEB)
Gaza is enduring what the United Nations calls the most severe economic collapse ever recorded, with nine in 10 businesses damaged or destroyed and hundreds of thousands of people left without work, a major UN development agency warned.
UNCTAD Report: Devastating Economic Toll
The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said Israel's military offensive, launched after a Hamas attack in October 2023, devastated the besieged territory of about two million people before a tentative ceasefire in October 2025. The organisation published a new report detailing the scale of the damage.
"The collapse of the economy of Gaza is the world's most severe economic crisis on record,"
— Pedro Manuel Moreno, Acting Secretary-General, UNCTAD
UNCTAD's analysis finds that 92 percent of Gaza's economic establishments have been damaged or destroyed. The territory's daily per capita GDP is estimated at just $0.58, while consumer prices have risen 274 percent compared with 2022. Industrial activity and agricultural production have fallen by 94 percent, and only 1.5 percent of arable land is currently accessible — creating near-total dependence on humanitarian food aid.
Human and Social Impact
According to Gaza's health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority and whose figures the United Nations regards as reliable, more than 73,000 people have been killed. The offensive displaced virtually the entire population and left most buildings damaged or destroyed. "Before October 2023, two out of three Gazans were poor. Today, everyone in Gaza is multidimensionally poor," said Mutasim Elagraa, UNCTAD's coordinator for assistance to the Palestinians.
Employment, Finance and Regional Risks
The report estimates that hundreds of thousands of jobs have been lost, leaving over 90 percent of Gaza's working-age population without employment. UNCTAD also highlights mounting economic and financial pressure in the occupied West Bank, citing constrained access to land and natural resources linked to settlement expansion.
Mutasim Elagraa warned that the Palestinian government has borrowed heavily from local banks, tapped the Palestinian pension fund and accumulated debts to private contractors, creating a precarious fiscal position. "The Palestinian territories risk a banking collapse," he cautioned, adding that the political, social and humanitarian consequences would be immense.
The report underscores the urgent need for sustained humanitarian relief, reconstruction planning, and international support to prevent further deterioration and to begin long-term economic recovery.
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