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On June 13, 2021, a World Bank high level delegation led by the Vice President of the MENA region, Ferid Belhaj, and Executive Director of the Board, Merza Hasan, visited Gaza to witness first-hand the damage of the recent conflict, including to World Bank Group projects. Throughout the various conflicts that have taken place in the Palestinian territories, the images carried by media and seen all over the world capture the destruction of physical assets: buildings, houses, and infrastructure.

Palestinians in Gaza have suffered from the cumulative costs, human and economic, of recurrent hostilities over the last three decades, as well as prolonged restrictions on the movement of people and commercial goods at border crossings, limits to fishing off Gaza’s coast, and now the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Palestinian Territories' Economic Update October 2021. Download Palestinian Territories report: English. Following an improvement in the health situation, lockdowns were eased in Q1 2021 and the Palestinian economy started showing signs of recovery. The recovery was interrupted in Gaza by an 11-day conflict in May while the West Bank continued its upward trajectory.

The alleviation of environmental hazards in Gaza—closing ten hectares of dump sites and enhancing solid waste management for the benefit of about 948,000 Palestinians. Last Updated: Oct 10, 2022 Development assistance to the Palestinians has experienced a steep decline over the last decade and a half, from about $2 billion (27% of Palestinian GDP) in 2008 to about $300 million (1.8% of GDP) in 2021.

Gaza’s economy has been kept afloat in recent years by large transfers including donor aid and spending through the budget of the Palestinian Authority (PA), both of which amounted to 70-80 percent of Gaza’s GDP. However, these two sources have significantly declined recently resulting in economic activity in Gaza shrinking by 8 percent in 2018. In the West Bank, real growth has declined to around 2 percent in 2018, lower than its average in previous years as the decrease in aid inflows ...

The Palestinian economy was stagnant and the socio-economic situation already difficult prior to the breakout of COVID-19. This is attributed to restrictions by Israel (on trade, movement and access), recurrent hostilities, internal divide, and falling aid inflows.

Palestinian Territories' Economic Update — April 2021. After a successful containment of the COVID-19 first outbreak in the spring of 2020, the second and third waves have been more challenging. Q2 2020 witnessed one of the largest economic contractions on record, but activity has slightly improved since.