More than half Gaza households slump below poverty line, a UNRWA report

[ 25/07/2008 - 11:07 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said, in a report published on Thursday, that the number of Gaza households who fell below the poverty line has reached the unprecedented level of 52%.

The report, entitled Prolonged Crisis in the Occupied Palestinian Territory: Socio-economic Developments in 2007, said that “the number of households in Gaza below the consumption poverty line continued to grow, reaching 51.8 per cent in 2007, despite significant amounts of emergency and humanitarian assistance”.

In the West Bank, however, the poverty levels fell to just over 19% which the report attributed to "the lifting of the international embargo on the Palestinian Authority".

The report also stated that “the real average unemployment rate in the occupied Palestinian territory (as a whole) remained amongst the highest in the world at 29.5 percent. When adjusted to account for the sharp increase in absentee workers in Gaza during the second half of the year, joblessness in Gaza between July and December 2007 reached an unprecedented high of 45.3 per cent” adding that "Youth have been disproportionately affected by unemployment during 2007 and are a main element in increasing unemployment rates."

"Israeli-imposed movement restrictions in the oPt, whose population is estimated to have grown by about one-third since 1999, have resulted in considerable regression over the past eight years and remain the main barrier to economic recovery and development," the report stated.

Fair Use Notice

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.