400,000 workers outside the labor market.. Gaza faces an unprecedented employment crisis

A report reviews the unemployment crisis in the Gaza Strip after the war, estimating the number of unemployed workers at about 400,000, with an unemployment rate exceeding 90%. It includes testimonies of workers who lost their sources of income and homes, and calls for establishing social safety nets and transitioning from relief to economic empowerment.

A report from the Palestine newspaper reviews the unprecedented unemployment crisis in the Gaza Strip after nearly three years of war. The head of the General Union of Palestinian Workers' Unions, Sami al-Amsi, estimates the number of unemployed workers at about 400,000, with an unemployment rate exceeding 90% and a similar poverty rate among worker families. The report includes testimonies from workers such as Khaled al-Dabbagh, who lives in a tent after his home was destroyed and relies on aid, and Samah al-Helo, a psychologist who lost her job when institutions shut down. Al-Amsi points out that 20,000 workers who were employed inside the 1948 territories before the war lost their jobs, and that withheld workers' rights are estimated at about $20 billion. Activist Salama Abu Zuaiter calls for transforming the file from temporary relief into a national strategy for economic empowerment, including social safety nets and cash-for-work support programs.