The United Nations has issued one of its starkest warnings yet: Gaza’s very survival is hanging by a thread. After two years of relentless conflict, the Palestinian territory is experiencing an economic and humanitarian collapse so deep that experts fear it may be impossible to rebuild without immediate global intervention.
A new report from the UN Trade and Development Agency (UNCTAD) reveals the staggering truth. The cost to rebuild Gaza now exceeds US70 billion, and recovery could take several decades even under the most optimistic conditions. The report describes Gaza as having been pushed into a “human-made abyss”, where every pillar necessary for survival — food, shelter, healthcare, economic stability — has been broken.
UNCTAD states that the systematic destruction has raised profound doubt about Gaza’s ability to function again as a liveable, thriving society. What was once a struggling but resilient territory has now been crushed into what the report calls a state of “utter ruin”.
The crisis began after Hamas’s attack on southern Israel in October 2023, which killed 1,221 people. Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has since taken the lives of more than 69,000 people in Gaza, according to figures recognised by the United Nations.
But beyond the loss of life, the destruction has triggered what experts describe as cascading economic, environmental, social, and humanitarian crises. Gaza’s economy has contracted by 87 per cent in just two years. Today, the territory’s GDP per capita stands at only US161, among the lowest in the world.
Even with huge infusions of foreign aid, double-digit economic growth, and full access to trade and mobility — a highly unlikely ideal scenario — UNCTAD says it will still take decades for Gaza to return to its pre-October 2023 welfare levels.
The agency is urging a comprehensive global recovery plan. This includes coordinated international assistance, restoration of fiscal transfers, and easing severe restrictions on movement, trade, and investment. It also recommends introducing a universal emergency basic income for every resident in Gaza to prevent total economic and social collapse.
The situation in the West Bank, although less catastrophic, is also deteriorating. Violence, expanding settlements, and restrictions on mobility have resulted in the region’s worst economic decline since record-keeping began in 1972.
Behind the numbers are millions of lives. Families struggling for food. Children living without homes. Elderly people deprived of medical care. A society fighting simply to exist. The crisis in Gaza is more than a geopolitical issue — it is a profound human tragedy demanding urgent compassion, courage, and collective action.
