182,000 Gazans Lost Jobs Since Israeli Attack: ILO Report

Israel’s massive bombardment of the Gaza Strip has cost 182,000 jobs in the blockaded enclave since the war with Hamas started.

“At least, 61% of employment, equivalent to 182,000 jobs, has been lost in the Gaza Strip since the start of the current Israel-Hamas war,” according to a latest International Labour Organisation (ILO) report.

Entire neighbourhoods have been pulverised, infrastructure severely damaged, businesses closed, large-scale internal displacement has occurred, and the lack of water, food and fuel are crippling economic activity, the report notes.

The conflict’s spillover effect has also cost 208,000 jobs in the West Bank, “where an estimated 24% of employment” has been lost.

“The total estimated 390,000 job losses in the two areas, which comprise the Occupied Palestinian Territory, translate into daily labour income losses of $16 million,” the report says adding that the figures are projected to increase if Israel intensifies the operation and the “humanitarian crisis in the enclave continues to unfold”.

The humanitarian crisis in Gaza has severe implications on the labour market, employment prospects and livelihoods in the enclave and across the entire Occupied Palestinian Territory, the report states.

“Our initial assessment of the repercussions of the tragic current crisis on the Palestinian labour market have yielded extremely worrying results which will only worsen if the conflict continues,” said ILO regional director for Arab states Ruba Jaradat.

“The ongoing hostilities not only represent an enormous humanitarian crisis in terms of loss of lives and basic human needs, they also represent a social and economic crisis which has caused vast damage to jobs and businesses with reverberations that will be felt for many years to come,” she added.

Reiterating the call by the ILO Governing Body in its current session, Jaradat said that full, rapid, safe, and unhindered humanitarian access for the sustainable delivery of humanitarian aid to civilians throughout Gaza should be allowed in consistence with international humanitarian law,.

“We are working tirelessly with government, worker and employer partners, other UN agencies and humanitarian actors to provide immediate assistance to impacted workers and businesses. We will also support them in the longer term towards collecting vital labour market information and recovering jobs and enterprises, combined with social protection initiatives, to the utmost extent of our mandate,” she added.

The ILO’s three-phase response programme—relief, review and recovery—addresses the impact of the crisis on the Palestinian labour market and livelihoods.

Under the first phase, which is already under way, the focus is on relief works with immediate assistance, such as emergency livelihood support schemes, for Palestinian workers, including those stranded in the West Bank.

The ILO has channelled around $1.1 million towards emergency relief intervention and preliminary data collection and is working on allocating further internal resources to implement its response plan.

The second phase involves data collection and impact analysis to “help plan, prioritise and finetune intervention”.

The third phase will “focus on job creation through employment intensive infrastructure recovery and other means as well as on social protection measures and recovery of jobs and businesses”.

An ILO meeting for development partners on the sidelines of the ongoing 349th Session of the Governing Body will launch of an appeal for $20 million to implement the three-phase response plan.