After a year of Israel's genocidal war, Gaza loses more than $30 billion and counting

As Israel's genocidal war enters its second year, the Israeli army has been carrying out its violent air and ground attacks targeting all governorates of the Gaza Strip, causing more human and financial losses.

Since day one of the war, Israel's army systematically targetted the economic sector in the besieged coastal enclave in indiscriminate attacks on civilian and commercial sites, homes, factories, farms and fish markets.

According to a United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report in September, Gaza's GDP dropped by over 80 percent by the end of 2023, and has been spiralling down ever since.

Speaking to The New Arab, Palestinian business owners in Gaza described further how they incurred unprecedented, heavy losses due to Israel's ongoing war, with some stressing they have neither the funds nor time to rebuild their businesses again in Gaza. 

Many of them noted that they will attempt to leave Gaza with their families and try to establish their own business in other Arab countries like Egypt, Oman, Morocco and elsewhere.

'Israel bombed everything'

Over the year of Israel's war, the Israeli army caused Shaher Al-Ejla, a Gaza-based Palestinian business owner, to lose more than 85 percent of his wealth by attacking 90 percent of his commercial and residential properties, which amounts to more than US$8 million in losses.  

For more than four decades, the 65-year-old father of six worked in the livestock trade and owned a chain of shops specializing in selling imported meat and poultry.

Instead of living inside his big and luxurious villa that was located on the coast of Beit Lahia town in the north of Gaza, Al-Ejla is now forced to live in a tent he established in the town of Al-Zawaida in central Gaza.

Al-Ejla, who lost more than 30 kilograms of weight, said to TNA that he does not have any money to provide food for his family. "I was one of the main traders in Gaza who let our people get their needs of meats and poultry […] Now, I can barely obtain the basic food for my family," the elderly trader said. 

"I have tried many times to revive my business and import frozen meat, but my lack of liquidity in cash prevented that. Now, I only depend on food provided to me by UN institutions," he added.

Due to al-Ejla's losses, more than 250 of his workers also lost their only source of income.

Karim Abu Salama, one of al-Ejla's workers, remarked to The New Arab, "I feel oppressed by the situation we are currently living in. Every time I meet my employer, I cry over his condition, my condition, and the condition of all the residents of Gaza because of these losses that we are incurring daily, even without knowing when this war will end."

Sameh Ajour, owner of Ajour Trading and Industry Company, which specialises in selling utensils and household items, lost about 70 per cent of his capital and property due to the ongoing Israeli bombardment.

"We lost everything in this war [...] I spent more than 40 years of my life building my company, defying all the difficult political and economic conditions in the Gaza Strip, but now I don’t have any of my money because the army bombed everything I own," the 69-year-old father of eight told TNA.

"Because of the ongoing Israeli wars in the Gaza Strip, we have suffered a lot of losses, but we [business owners] were working hard to compensate for them through trade and insisting on reviving our country's economy, but now most of us don't have the money or even the life to rebuild from scratch again," the man said.

Unprecedented decline

Israel's war has left the economy of the Gaza Strip in ruins, and has also driven up inflation, high rates of poverty and unemployment, and has resulted in the collapse of local income and financial restrictions. This has paralysed all aspects of life for the Palestinian people, according to UNCTAD.

UNCTAD added in its latest report that "the staggering scale of economic devastation and the unprecedented decline in economic activity far exceeded the impact of all previous military confrontations in the Strip since 2008."

It noted Gaza's gross domestic product fell by 81 per cent in the last quarter of 2023, leading to a 22 per cent contraction for the entire year, and by mid-2024 Gaza's economy had shrunk to less than a sixth of its 2022 level.

The UNCTAD indicated that between 80 and 96 per cent of agricultural assets in the besieged coastal enclave [including irrigation systems, livestock farms, orchards, machinery and storage facilities] has been damaged, crippling the ability to produce food and exacerbating already high levels of food insecurity.

Meanwhile, about 82 per cent of businesses in Gaza, a major driver of the economy, had been destroyed while damage to the productive base continues amid ongoing Israeli military operations.

The estimated direct losses to the Palestinian economy exceeded US$35 billion, due to the halting of the modes of production and the destruction of homes, infrastructure, service facilities, and others, in addition to billions of dollars in indirect losses from loss of jobs, the halting of the exports, and the deficit in the administrative field, according to Ahmed Abu Qamar, an economist based in Gaza.

"The industrial sector, which is considered the most important, was exposed to an Israeli war before the start of the aggression, through the ongoing siege for 17 years," Abu Qamar stressed to TNA.

Abu Qamar added about 84 per cent of the companies "were able to overcome the difficulties of the siege and establish themselves, but they collapsed once again during the current aggression and went out of service while facing problems related to their restoration, and their return to work during the coming period."

"Once the war ends," he added, "it is important for the Palestinian government [which will manage Gaza] to adopt a strategic plan based on reviving economic life in the Gaza Strip and working to establish productive economic projects that allow businessmen to compensate for their losses as well as create a new work environment for the local population."