During the Gaza war, children now work so that families can survive: ILO – Global Issues

“Today Gaza is in ruins. Livelihoods have been destroyed and work is scarce. Labor rights have been decimated,” he said. “This is the most difficult year for Palestinian workers since 1967. Never before has the situation been so bleak.”

Hard data

According to data collected by the I LO and the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, unemployment in the Gaza Strip has reached 79.1 percent.

Although not directly affected by the war, the occupied West Bank has also been hit hard by the crisis, with almost one in three unemployed.

“These figures bring the average unemployment rate in the two areas of the OPT to 50.8 percent,” the authors of The situation of workers in the occupied Arab territories, Before noting, the actual figure was likely even higher, as it did not include those who had left the workforce altogether due to a lack of opportunity.

Not surprisingly, over the past eight months, total economic output has shrunk by 83.5 percent in Gaza and by 22.7 percent in the West Bank, while the entire OPT economy has shrunk by almost 33 percent.

Healthcare breakthrough

In related developments in Gaza, the UN health agency announced on Friday that despite “significant restrictions,” a fully loaded truck and a partially stacked trailer carrying medical aid had reached Gaza through the southern border crossing of Kerem Shalom.

“The supplies will be distributed to health facilities to support the treatment of up to 44,000 people,” the World Health Organization (WHO) said.WHO) said in a message on X.

The aid includes treatments for non-communicable diseases such as hypertension and heart disease, type 2 diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases, but much more assistance is urgently needed through the still closed Rafah border crossing, the UN health agency stressed.

In a separate update, the WHO reported that 464 attacks on healthcare in the Gaza Strip have been documented since October 7.

“Attacks have resulted in 727 fatalities, 933 injuries, 101 health facilities affected and 113 ambulances affected,” the World Health Organization (WHO) said in another post on X.

“Two-fifths (37 percent) of the attacks took place in Gaza City, almost a quarter (23 percent) in Northern Gaza and over a quarter (28 percent) in Khan Younis. WHO calls for respect for international law and active protection of civilians and health care,” the UN agency said insisted.

Rafa

Rafah is now home to fewer than 100,000 people in the southern governorate, the UN Aid Coordination Office, OCHAreported late Thursday.

This follows the forced evacuation “of approximately one million people – who were once again displaced” and heading to Khan Younis and Deir al Balah, OCHA said, adding that the ongoing hostilities had massively disrupted the delivery of life-saving aid .

The suspension of fuel deliveries via the Rafah crossing from Egypt had multiple negative consequences, the UN aid agency explained, as it affected “trucks, hospitals, sewers, desalination operations and bakeries.”

“As things stand, aid convoys still have to navigate active hostilities, barely passable roads, unexploded ordnance and recurring delays,” OCHA said.

Border between Israel and Lebanon is a serious concern: Guterres

The ongoing firefight between Israeli forces and militants in southern Lebanon along the UN-guarded Blue Line border is a source of serious concern, UN Secretary General António Guterres said on Thursday.

In a statement In the evening from his spokesman’s office in New York, the UN chief called for an urgent ceasefire.

“He remains deeply concerned that the firefights have not only ravaged communities near the Blue Line, but have also penetrated deeper into areas of both Lebanon and Israel, with the use of increasingly destructive weapons,” the statement continued.

“These exchanges of fire could trigger a broader conflict with devastating consequences for the region.”