When someone stops waiting for things to improve and instead just waits for them to stop getting worse, they experience a specific type of fatigue. You can sense the weariness in the air as you stroll through what’s left of Gaza’s commercial districts, the ones with streets.
stores with shelves that are partially empty. There are young men sitting in plastic chairs with nothing to do. From a damaged apartment, a nurse is selling social media packages. There isn’t a recession here. This is much more comprehensive.
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Region | Gaza Strip, Palestinian Territory |
| Population | Approximately 2.3 million people |
| GDP Collapse (vs. 2023) | 84% decline in Gaza Strip by 2025 |
| Overall Unemployment Rate | 69–78% (2024–2025 figures) |
| Youth Unemployment (15–29) | Approximately 80% |
| Population Under 30 | ~70% of Gaza’s total residents |
| Poverty Rate (pre-war) | Exceeded 63% |
| Aid Dependency | ~80% of population relies on international aid |
| Construction Sector Decline | 99% contraction in Gaza Strip vs. 2023 |
| Industrial Sector Decline | 94% contraction in Gaza Strip vs. 2023 |
| Trade Volume Change | 12% decline in total Palestinian trade vs. 2023 |
| Gaza Share of Palestinian Trade | Dropped from 29% (2003) to under 4% during war |
| Life Expectancy (post-Oct 2023) | Estimated drop from 76 to 41 years (Lancet study) |
| Israel–Gaza GDP Per Capita Gap | Israel’s GDP per capita ~14x higher than Gaza/West Bank (2022) |
After years of hard work, Hala Mohammed al-Maghrabi received her nursing degree in 2023. The healthcare system that was meant to take her in had mostly collapsed by the time she was done. Despite this, she volunteered for two years because she believed that experience would eventually lead to money.
It didn’t. “Volunteering doesn’t pay the bills,” she stated flatly, as if she had told herself this many times. She made what must have felt like a minor setback when she decided to quit nursing and train herself in digital marketing due to growing costs and the lack of a salary. She now manages online stores and makes enough money to pay her bills every day. “This isn’t what I studied or planned for,” she replied. Survival, however, is rarely.
Al-Maghrabi’s turn is remarkable more for what it reveals about the collapse beneath it than for its inventiveness. According to data from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 69% of Gazans were unemployed overall in 2024; among those between the ages of 15 and 29, that number rose to about 80%.
Nearly 70% of Gaza’s population is in that age group—young, educated people who ought to be spearheading an economy. This situation’s math is astounding, and for some reason, it is still being discussed in terms of statistics rather than disaster.
Compared to pre-war levels, Gaza’s GDP has decreased by over 82%. There was a 99 percent collapse in construction activity. 94% of the industry. In this tiny, heavily controlled, coastal region, agriculture, which has always been a precarious pillar, declined by 92%. These numbers do not come from a nation experiencing a difficult economic period.
These numbers come from an area that has lost its economic foundation. Although there was a statistical increase of 4% in 2025 compared to 2024, economists have cautioned that this indicates very little. GDP is still 84% below 2023 levels. Even if near-zero is improved by 4%, it remains near-zero.
In the past, Mohammed al-Hajj operated a general trade and food supply company. He had long-standing relationships with suppliers, warehouses, and merchandise. All of it literally vanished as the conflict grew more intense.
“My warehouses and goods were destroyed,” he stated. “I was no longer able to pay for the necessary licenses or import fees. Suddenly, everything I had worked so hard to build was gone.” He glanced around at what he still had: a neighborhood that hadn’t been destroyed, a sporadic internet connection, and some land that was still intact.
He constructed a small workspace with a reliable connection and began renting it out to engineers and students who needed a place to work remotely or take online tests. “I created this place after running out of options,” he stated. It’s difficult to ignore the irony: a man who formerly transported goods across international borders now operates what is effectively an internet café and counts himself among the fortunate.
It’s possible that what’s occurring in Gaza is truly unprecedented in recent economic history: a nearly total, externally imposed shutdown of a functioning economy rather than a depression brought on by poor management, a natural disaster, or even conventional war damage. Gaza now accounts for less than 4% of all Palestinian trade, down from 29% in 2003 due to the blockade.
At some points during the conflict, basic goods and medications entering the strip have reportedly reached no more than 4% of necessary quantities. People are unable to work, and even if they could, they are unable to make purchases. This has led to a double crisis.
The CEO of Abu Zayed General Trading, Ahmed Fares Abu Zayed, began his career in the small industry of producing electricity prior to the war. When the fuel ran out, he took an unexpected turn and started using plastic waste to create electricity, turning the ubiquitous scrap material into something useful. It was successful. Furthermore, it gave young people with no other options jobs in manufacturing, installation, and maintenance.
“Even under the toughest circumstances,” he stated, “a small idea can turn into a sustainable project that supports the community.” That story has a certain defiant inventiveness that is both admirable and incredibly depressing. Ambition, not the fact that the alternative is starving, should be the driving force behind innovation.
Not every adaptation is this beneficial. The darker side of Gaza’s informal economy, including money lending, exploitative currency exchanges, and remittance schemes where people receive cash transfers at discounts greater than 50%, was described by Mahmoud, a young resident who requested that only his first name be used.
“With no government support and no safety nets, securing a steady income has become almost impossible,” he stated. It turns out that desperation creates its own markets, but they’re not the ones that people would choose. Instead of creating a void, the lack of formal economic structures leads to exploitation.
Project manager and business management expert Maram al-Qarra put the issue succinctly: “The problem in Gaza isn’t a lack of talent, but the absence of an economic environment capable of absorbing it.” That distinction is important. People are not to blame for what is happening here. On street corners, doctors are selling vegetables.
Workspace is rented by engineers on an hourly basis. Marketing algorithms are being taught to nurses. These do not indicate a lack of skill or motivation in the populace. They are indicators of a population that has persevered after all the structures that were meant to sustain them were destroyed. That is a completely different issue, and there isn’t a clear solution on the other side as long as the conflict persists.