Palestinian economy is in free fall and will require billions to rebuild: UN

Palestinian economy is in free fall and will require billions to rebuild: UN
The Palestinian economy is “in free fall,” the United Nations reported Thursday, with production in Gaza plunging to one-sixth of its level before Israeli forces began a blistering military response to the Oct. 7 attacks in the territory. (AFP/File)
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Updated 12 September 2024
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Palestinian economy is in free fall and will require billions to rebuild: UN

Palestinian economy is in free fall and will require billions to rebuild: UN
  • The report from UN Trade and Development, or UNCTAD, also warned of “rapid and alarming economic decline” in the West Bank, citing expanded Israeli settlements
  • The report made no mention of corruption in Palestinian institutions

GENEVA: The Palestinian economy is “in free fall,” the United Nations reported Thursday, with production in Gaza plunging to one-sixth of its level before Israeli forces began a blistering military response to the Oct. 7 attacks in the territory.
The report from UN Trade and Development, or UNCTAD, also warned of “rapid and alarming economic decline” in the West Bank, citing expanded Israeli settlements, land confiscations, demolition of Palestinian buildings and violence by settlers.
The report made no mention of corruption in Palestinian institutions.
“The Palestinian economy is in free fall,” Pedro Manuel Moreno, the agency’s deputy secretary-general, told reporters in Geneva. “The report calls for the international community to halt this economic free fall, address the humanitarian crisis, and lay the groundwork for lasting peace and development.”
That would include a “comprehensive recovery plan” for Palestinian areas, more international aid, the lifting of Israel’s blockade on Gaza, and the release of revenues and withheld funds for Palestinians retained by Israel, he said.
Gaza’s economy was weak even before the war, when unemployment was close to 50 percent, but the war has brought it to a near-standstill, with the UN estimating that roughly 90 percent of the territory’s population has been displaced, many living in squalid tent camps and dependent on international aid.
The war has also hurt the West Bank. After the Oct. 7 attacks, Israel immediately revoked work permits that allowed some 150,000 Palestinians to work inside Israel, depriving them of a key source of income.
A military crackdown that Israel says is aimed at militants has also rippled through the economy, with frequent army raids and military checkpoints making it difficult for people to work or move around.
With violence continuing, there’s little sign of any recovery plan being launched anytime soon.
Mutasim Elagraa, who coordinates UNCTAD’s assistance to Palestinians, said: “If we want to return Gaza to pre-October 2023, we need tens of billions of dollars, or even more, and decades.”
The ultimate goal is “to put Gaza on a path of sustainable development,” which will take more time and money, he said.
Economic output in Gaza plunged to just over $221 million in the half-year including the last quarter of 2023 and first quarter of 2024 — the last quarter for which figures are available — or about 16 percent of the total figure for the same half-year period in 2022 and 2023, when the total was just over $1.34 billion, the agency said.
Meanwhile, more than 300,000 jobs in the West Bank — home to some 3 million Palestinians — have been lost, driving unemployment rates up to 32 percent, up from under 13 percent before the conflict, the agency reported.
By early this year, as much as 96 percent of Gaza’s farming assets, including livestock farms, orchards, machinery and storage facilities, had been “decimated,” UNCTAD said.
Over 80 percent of businesses were damaged or destroyed, and the damage has continued to worsen, it said.
Since the 1990s, Israel has collected import duties for Palestinians — leaving about two-thirds of all Palestinian tax revenue under the control of the Israeli government. Israel has repeatedly withheld or suspended the payments, accusing the Palestinian Authority of encouraging violence or taking hostile steps against Israel in the UN and other international bodies.
From 2019 through April this year, Israel had withheld or deducted a total of more than $1.4 billion, crimping the ability of Palestinian officials to provide public services and pay salaries, pensions and debts, it said. The European Union last month said it paid some $43 million to help the Palestinian Authority pay salaries and pensions in the West Bank.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed at least 41,084 Palestinians and wounded another 95,029, the territory’s Health Ministry said. The ministry’s count does not differentiate between civilians and militants.
Israel launched its campaign vowing to destroy the Palestinian group Hamas after the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel in which militants killed some 1,200 people and abducted 250 others.


Iran bans pagers, walkie-talkies on flights after Lebanon attacks

Iran bans pagers, walkie-talkies on flights after Lebanon attacks
Updated 2 sec ago
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Iran bans pagers, walkie-talkies on flights after Lebanon attacks

Iran bans pagers, walkie-talkies on flights after Lebanon attacks
  • Ban imposed weeks after deadly sabotage attacks in Lebanon which were blamed on Israel
TEHRAN: Iran has banned pagers and walkie-talkies on all flights, local media reported Saturday, weeks after deadly sabotage attacks in Lebanon which were blamed on Israel.
“The entry of any electronic communication device, except mobile phones, in flight cabins or ... in non-accompanied cargo, has been banned,” ISNA news agency reported, citing the spokesman for Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization Jafar Yazerlo.
The decision came over three weeks since sabotage attacks targeting members of the Iran-allied Hezbollah group in Lebanon that saw pagers and walkie-talkies explode, killing at least 39 people.
Nearly 3,000 others were wounded in the attack, which Iran and Hezbollah blamed on Israel, including Tehran’s ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani.
Earlier this month, Dubai-based airline Emirates banned pagers and walkie-talkies onboard its planes.
Regional tensions have soared since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October last year, drawing in Iran-aligned groups from Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
Multiple airlines have in recent weeks suspended flights to Iran following Tehran’s missile attack on Israel on October 1.
Iran fired some 200 missiles at Israel to retaliate against the killing of Tehran-aligned militant leaders in the region and a general in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
Israel has since vowed to retaliate, with defense minister Yoav Gallant saying the response will be “deadly, precise, and surprising.”

Iran parliament speaker visits site of deadliest Israeli strike in central Beirut

Iran parliament speaker visits site of deadliest Israeli strike in central Beirut
Updated 12 October 2024
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Iran parliament speaker visits site of deadliest Israeli strike in central Beirut

Iran parliament speaker visits site of deadliest Israeli strike in central Beirut
  • Israeli air raid on Thursday night in the densely populated Basta area killed at least 22 people
  • Attack targeted the Iran-backed group’s security chief Wafiq Safa, but his fate remains unknown

Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf on Saturday denounced Israel’s “crimes” as he visited the site of the deadliest Israeli strike on central Beirut in recent weeks, an AFP photographer said.

A source close to Hezbollah has said that the air raid on Thursday night in the densely populated Basta area, which killed at least 22 people, had targeted the Iran-backed Lebanese group’s security chief Wafiq Safa.

But neither the Israeli military nor Hezbollah confirmed that he was the target of the strike, nor did they remark on his fate.

Speaking to the press, accompanied by two Hezbollah lawmakers, Ghalibaf denounced what he called Israel’s “crimes.”

“International organizations and the UN Security Council have the capability (to stop Israel) but they are unfortunately keeping silent,” he said.

Earlier Saturday, Ghalibaf met Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who told him his government’s priority was “to work toward a ceasefire,” Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) said.

The premier on Friday urged the United Nations to pass a resolution calling for an “immediate” ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

Ghalibaf was also expected to meet his Lebanese counterpart Nabih Berri, a powerful Hezbollah ally, before heading to Geneva later the same day, according to Berri’s office and Iran’s state news agency IRNA.

When he visited Lebanon on Friday last week, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said his country backed efforts for a simultaneous ceasefire with Israel in both Gaza and Lebanon.


Russia, Syria, Iran should take measures after Israel’s strike on Damascus, Erdogan says

Russia, Syria, Iran should take measures after Israel’s strike on Damascus, Erdogan says
Updated 12 October 2024
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Russia, Syria, Iran should take measures after Israel’s strike on Damascus, Erdogan says

Russia, Syria, Iran should take measures after Israel’s strike on Damascus, Erdogan says

ISTANBUL: Russia, Syria and Iran should take more effective measures to protect Syria’s territorial integrity, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said, when asked about Israel’s recent strike on Damascus.
“We will defend an urgent and permanent peace in Syria...Israel is the most concrete threat to regional and global peace,” Erdogan said in an interview with Turkish media.
“It is essential that Russia, Iran and Syria take more effective measures against this situation, which poses the greatest threat to Syria’s territorial integrity,” according to a readout of the interview from the presidency.


Israeli military renews orders for Palestinians to leave northern Gaza

Israeli military renews orders for Palestinians to leave northern Gaza
Updated 12 October 2024
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Israeli military renews orders for Palestinians to leave northern Gaza

Israeli military renews orders for Palestinians to leave northern Gaza
  • People asked to head south to Muwasi, a packed area in southern Gaza designed as a humanitarian zone
  • Residents said they have been trapped inside their homes and shelters

The Israeli military on Saturday renewed its orders for Palestinian in the northern Gaza Strip to leave their homes and shelters as troops press on a weeklong offensive against militants.
Military spokesman Avichay Adraee told people to leave parts of Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighborhood and other areas in and around Jabaliya, the urban refugee camp where Israeli forces carried out several major operations over the course of the war and then returned as militants regroup.
In a post on X, Adraee asked people to head south to Muwasi, a packed area in southern Gaza designed by the military as a humanitarian zone.
Most of the fighting in the past week was centered in and around Jabaliya that was pounded by Israeli war jets and artillery. Residents said they have been trapped inside their homes and shelters. The military also ordered the three main hospitals in northern Gaza to evacuate patients and medical staff.
In Lebanon, authorities said Friday that 60 people were killed and 168 wounded in the past 24 hours, raising the total toll over the past year of conflict between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah to 2,229 dead and 10,380 wounded.
Israel has been escalating its campaign against Hezbollah with waves of heavy airstrikes across Lebanon and a ground invasion at the border, after a year of exchanges of fire. Israel is now at war with Hamas in Gaza and Hamas’ ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not say how many were fighters but say women and children make up more than half of the fatalities. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced about 90 percent of its population of 2.3 million people, often multiple times.
It’s been a full year since Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed into army bases and farming communities, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. They are still holding about 100 captives inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.


Israel orders evacuation of more southern Lebanese towns amid rising displacement

Israel orders evacuation of more southern Lebanese towns amid rising displacement
Updated 5 min 37 sec ago
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Israel orders evacuation of more southern Lebanese towns amid rising displacement

Israel orders evacuation of more southern Lebanese towns amid rising displacement
  • Israeli forces continue to “target Hezbollah posts in or near your villages”
  • Adraee reiterated an earlier call for health workers and medical teams in southern Lebanon to avoid using ambulances

The Israeli military ordered residents of 23 southern Lebanese villages on Saturday to evacuate to areas north of the Awali River, which flows from the western Bekaa Valley into the Mediterranean.
The order, communicated via a military statement, mentions villages in southern Lebanon that have been recent targets of Israeli attacks, many of which are already almost empty.
The Israeli military stated that evacuations were necessary for the safety of residents due to increased Hezbollah activities, claiming the group is using sites to conceal weapons and launch attacks on Israel. Hezbollah denies concealing its weapons among civilians.
The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which erupted one year ago when the Iranian-backed group began launching rockets at northern Israel in support of Hamas at the start of the Gaza war, has dramatically escalated over the past month.
Intensified Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley and the southern suburbs of Beirut have forced approximately
1.2 million people
from their homes since Sept. 23, according to the Lebanese government.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Saturday that more Lebanese have now been displaced than during the last major war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, when around 1 million fled their homes. (Reporting by Ahmed Tolba Writing by Adam Makary Editing by Peter Graff)