Gaza’s economy has contracted by about 87 percent over two years, leaving hundreds of thousands without income and pushing families into extreme deprivation, according to Palestinian and UN assessments.
In central Gaza City, Alaa Alzanin, 41, shelters with his wife, five children, elderly mother and sister in a small tent at a United Nations-run school after their home in Beit Hanoon was destroyed during the Israeli regime’s war.
The family has been displaced eight times, and the tent is now their only protection from winter rain and cold.
Alzanin, a day labourer, said he has been unable to support his family since losing his work, a fate shared by hundreds of thousands across the Gaza Strip.
“Now I have no work, I can’t provide for my family,” he told Al Jazeera, adding that he previously worked in infrastructure and agriculture.
“I used to work with an axe to open water channels between the trees, plough the soil around them, spray pesticides, and plant tomatoes and cucumbers. I used to work from 7am to 4pm for 40–50 shekels ($13-$15) per day.”
Meanwhile, in Jabalia in northern Gaza, Majed Hamouda, 53, who has polio and supports a family of seven, has also lost his only source of income.
Hamouda, whose wife is a thalassaemia carrier, is sheltering at a school in the Remal neighborhood and relies on charity after financial aid he once received stopped when the war began.
On days when the family has no food, Hamouda said he sends his only son to collect plastic and rubbish to sell.
“My little son Yaqoub was the first in the northern schools in fourth grade. He won the prize of the Little Scientist from the Ministry of Education as he made eight successful scientific experiments for his age. Now, I sorrowfully look at him collecting nylon to burn for cooking food and running after the hot meal deliveries in the camp. I sometimes cry watching him,” he said.
“Now it’s become a dream to eat a tomato or a cucumber, and this is inhumane.”
Separately, United Nations agencies say the Israeli regime’s destruction of Gaza and its continued restrictions on crossings have pushed the territory into a hunger crisis.
After more than two years of war, the Gaza Strip has been almost entirely devastated, with widespread famine and severe shortages of food and basic supplies.
The World Food Program has said aid entering the besieged enclave does not meet the nutritional needs of the population.
According to the agency, deliveries fall far short of a daily target of 2,000 tons because only two crossings are open and the Israeli regime has restricted access.
The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics said in a report issued in mid-October that unemployment across Palestine rose to 50 percent during the war, reaching 80 percent in the Gaza Strip.
The bureau said there are about 550,000 unemployed people across Palestine.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said Palestinian gross domestic product had fallen back to its 2010 level by the end of last year.
GDP per capita returned to levels seen in 2003, erasing 22 years of economic development in just two years, the report said.
“Before the war, the Gaza Strip witnessed economic growth, with the opening of many commercial, tourism and industrial projects, and it became a haven for many investments in all sectors,” Maher Altabbaa, director general of the Gaza Governorate Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told Al Jazeera.
However, Gaza’s GDP plunged 83 percent in 2024 compared with the previous year, and by 87 percent over two years to about $362 million, he said.
GDP per capita fell to $161, placing Gaza among the poorest economies in the world.
Historically, the private sector was Gaza’s main economic engine, accounting for more than half of employment, Altabbaa said.
“It is the main driver in the Gaza Strip, where it used to contribute more than 52 percent of employment, relying on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as the backbone,” he said.
He added that agriculture had achieved self-sufficiency in many products and that Gaza contributed about 17 percent of the Palestinian GDP.
But even before October 2023, Gaza’s economy was severely constrained by the Israeli regime’s land, sea and air blockade imposed in 2007.
Local Palestinian estimates put poverty levels above 63 percent before the war, while the British government had estimated that about 80 percent of Gaza’s population depended on humanitarian assistance.
The government in Gaza now estimates that 90 percent of all sectors, including housing and infrastructure, have been wiped out.
Officials say plans exist to rebuild the economy and create jobs, but progress depends on conditions imposed by the Israeli regime.
“Supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as they are best positioned to absorb the workforce in the short term, and regulating the market and preventing monopolies resulting from import restrictions – which have led to sharp price distortions and high inflation rates – are among the urgent needs to fix the situation,” Ismail al-Thawabta, head of the Gaza Government Media Office, told Al Jazeera.
He estimated total economic losses at about $70 billion.
“We aim at building productive projects, not just relief efforts, as well as temporary and emergency employment programmes targeting youths, graduates and affected workers … in addition to building an accurate economic database to support decision-making and the development of future economic policies,” he said.
That would require reopening all crossings between Gaza and Israel and allowing the unrestricted entry of raw materials and spare parts, he added.
“The key productive sectors (industry, agriculture and services) have to be re-established as the true path to job creation and reducing dependence on aid,” he said.
Meanwhile, a ceasefire and peace plan proposed by US has yet to be fully implemented by the Israeli regime, with the second phase still unclear.
What remains clear, Palestinians say, is that Gaza faces an immense struggle to recover from the devastation of war.
For Alzanin and his wife Mariam, who is three months pregnant, limited food aid offers little relief as they remain without income.
“We eat and feel full from the hot meals deliveries in the camp … but it’s not nutritious, we still want to eat food that we can’t afford,’’ Mariam told Al Jazeera.
“We see everything in the markets, but we can’t get everything for the children; they tell us we desire bananas, apples, fish, and eggs, we get tiny portions that are not enough, and only for them,” she said.
“I am pregnant, I need proper food and supplements, I am losing my teeth, there was no calcium in my food for two years. Alhamdulillah!”