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After the May 2021 conflict, the World Bank team conducted a Facebook-based survey to assess the immediate needs of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza. Using innovative techniques, the team reduced the risk of bias by using targeted advertisements and sampling weights to calibrate the data to known population characteristics.

Gaza’s fishing community is among the poorest, with unique challenges, We found some challenges that are unique to Gaza, where the unemployment rate was 45 percent in 2019. Some fishermen told us that, more and more, they are finding raw and untreated sewage in their nets. Another issue is the limited power supply and frequent blackouts.

Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas in the world, with around 2.1 million individuals living in a total area of 365 square kilometers. For nearly 15 years, the movement of people and goods into and out of Gaza has been under restrictions imposed by the Government of Israel (GoI) due to security concerns.

With a high unemployment rate in Gaza (53.7 percent), and every second person in Gaza living below the poverty line, residents of the Gaza Strip also face greater technical, environmental, social, institutional and financial challenges, due in large part to restricted access to goods and services.

Last January, a severe weather storm swept through Egypt, Jordan, Gaza and the West bank, Syria, and Lebanon. The flooded streets and scores of displaced people it left behind showed that the region is still insufficiently prepared to manage natural disasters. Also in January, record breaking snow fall in Amman, Jordan, overwhelmed the city’s ...

But while conflict is not necessarily a consequence of water risks, the reverse is a real and concerning phenomenon: conflict amplifies water risks. Since 2011, there have been at least 180 instances of intentional targeting of water infrastructure in conflicts in Gaza, Libya, the Syrian Arab Republic, and the Republic of Yemen.