Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza
The Gaza war continues to have a "catastrophic impact" on the Palestinian economy and has plunged it into a crisis of “unprecedented magnitude”, the World Bank has warned.
The real gross domestic product of the Palestinian territories is expected to contract by 26 per cent this year, in the steepest decline in economic activity in two decades, a World Bank report said on Monday.
While Gaza’s economy shrunk by 86 per cent in the first half of 2024, the West Bank's economy contracted by 23 per cent. In Gaza, annual per capita income has fallen from $2,328 in 1994 to less than $200 today.
The war has caused infrastructure destruction, surging unemployment, soaring prices and the collapse of essential services in the Palestinian territories, the report said.
"The conflict has entered its second year. Palestinians continue to endure an unprecedented level of trauma, violence, economic hardship and uncertainty," the report said.
The war, which has killed more than 45,000 and injured over 106,000 since October last year, has displaced nearly 1.9 million people, or about 90 per cent of Gaza's population. It began with the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed.
Economic activity in Gaza has almost stopped, the report said, adding that its contribution to the overall Palestinian economy has plunged from 17 per cent to just 3.5 per cent, even though it is home to 40 per cent of the population in the Palestinian territories. The report estimated that 66 per cent of businesses in Gaza have been completely wiped out, while 22 per cent have sustained partial damage, leaving the commercial sector on the verge of collapse.
Rising unemployment
The war's ripple effects have also devastated the labour market, especially in Gaza, where the unemployment rate has surged more than 80 per cent.
In the West Bank, the unemployment rate has climbed to 35 per cent, fuelled by access restrictions to Israeli labour markets and disruptions in local economic activity. As of the first half of the year, the combined unemployment rate for Palestinian territories reached a record 51 per cent. The collapse of the labour market has led to a rise in informal work, including street selling and irregular employment, as families struggle to survive.
Food prices have soared, with the cost of essentials rising 448 per cent in October compared to the same period last year. Fuel costs during the period increased by 207 per cent, due to supply chain disruptions and logistical bottlenecks caused by the conflict.
Shortages of essential goods have driven thousands of households deeper into poverty, the World Bank said. “The erratic access, limitations and looting of goods entering Gaza have contributed to food insecurity at unprecedented levels.”
No access to emergency services
Gaza’s telecommunications infrastructure has also been destroyed. “The destruction of infrastructure in Gaza has led to widespread outages in mobile and internet connectivity, disrupting critical communication services, including emergency response and life-saving services, and exacerbating the hardships facing civilians,” the report said.
Operators have resorted to installing mobile towers on lorries and offering free calls and data packages to affected residents. Despite these efforts, the vast majority of Gaza's population remains digitally isolated, with no access to communication services.
The financial sector, which has historically been one of the more resilient pillars of the Palestinian economy, is also under strain. Although Palestinian banks remain well capitalised, with a 16.1 per cent capital adequacy ratio as of June, the sector faces heightened risks, the World Bank said.
Additionally, banks have taken action to bolster resilience further, with some issuing new capital, bringing total own funds to $2.1 billion, it added.
But virtually all bank branches and ATMs in Gaza are no longer operational, with 33 of 57 head offices and bank branches destroyed and another 19 partially damaged. "A deepening cash liquidity shortage has reduced purchasing power, leading to black-market withdrawals with high commissions," the World Bank said.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority's financing needs after aid and increased clearance revenue deductions reached $1.04 billion for the January to October period. As a result, the PA has had to reduce public sector salaries, paying workers only 60 to 70 per cent of their full wages since October last year. This has further weakened household spending, slowed consumption and fuelled social discontent, the report said.
The PA is now relies heavily on borrowing from domestic banks and deferring payments to private suppliers and pension funds.
The World Bank warned that the conflict has had a larger economic impact on the Palestinian territories than any previous crisis, including the Second Intifada (2000-2005), the 2006 internal political divide, the 2014 Gaza war and the Covid-19 pandemic.
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champioons League semi-final:
First leg: Liverpool 5 Roma 2
Second leg: Wednesday, May 2, Stadio Olimpico, Rome
TV: BeIN Sports, 10.45pm (UAE)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
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Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.
The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
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Liverpool 4-0 Barcelona
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1am – Early prelims
2am – Prelims
4am-7am – Main card
7:30am-9am – press cons
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French business
France has organised a delegation of leading businesses to travel to Syria. The group was led by French shipping giant CMA CGM, which struck a 30-year contract in May with the Syrian government to develop and run Latakia port. Also present were water and waste management company Suez, defence multinational Thales, and Ellipse Group, which is currently looking into rehabilitating Syrian hospitals.
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Esha Oza (captain), Al Maseera Jahangir, Emily Thomas, Heena Hotchandani, Indhuja Nandakumar, Katie Thompson, Lavanya Keny, Mehak Thakur, Michelle Botha, Rinitha Rajith, Samaira Dharnidharka, Siya Gokhale, Sashikala Silva, Suraksha Kotte, Theertha Satish (wicketkeeper) Udeni Kuruppuarachchige, Vaishnave Mahesh.
UAE tour of Zimbabwe
All matches in Bulawayo
Friday, Sept 26 – First ODI
Sunday, Sept 28 – Second ODI
Tuesday, Sept 30 – Third ODI
Thursday, Oct 2 – Fourth ODI
Sunday, Oct 5 – First T20I
Monday, Oct 6 – Second T20I
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
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Starring: Amir El-Masry, Pierce Brosnan
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The Lowdown
Kesari
Rating: 2.5/5 stars
Produced by: Dharma Productions, Azure Entertainment
Directed by: Anubhav Singh
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Parineeti Chopra
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
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MATCH INFO
Burnley 1 (Brady 89')
Manchester City 4 (Jesus 24', 50', Rodri 68', Mahrez 87')
What is tokenisation?
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