{"id":230392,"date":"2026-01-06T12:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T12:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/230392\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T12:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T12:52:08","slug":"economic-survival-in-gaza-decimated-by-israeli-counts-on-small-initiatives-israel-palestine-conflict-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/230392\/","title":{"rendered":"Economic survival in Gaza decimated by Israeli counts on small initiatives | Israel-Palestine conflict News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gaza\u2019s unemployment rate has reached 80 percent, among the highest in the world, according to the United Nations.<\/p>\n

After more than two years of Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza<\/a>, the daily unbearable churn of mass death and mourning, with homes, hospitals and schools destroyed, the besieged Palestinian territory also faces the fastest and most damaging economic collapse on record.<\/p>\n

That is according to the United Nations, which says Gaza\u2019s unemployment rate has reached 80 percent.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

Yet despite Israel\u2019s suffocating blockade on the Strip, Palestinians are improvising businesses to survive.<\/p>\n

For many people, survival now depends on skills and small initiatives, rather than formal jobs.<\/p>\n

Widowed and responsible for a household of five, Um Mohammed al-Jarjawi relies on knitting to provide for her family \u2013 and sometimes passes on her skills to the next generation.<\/p>\n

Every day inside her home, al-Jarjawi prepares food for her grandchildren. Moments later, she heads out to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started learning knitting when I was 10 years old,\u201d she told Al Jazeera. \u201cLater, I attended courses at specialised centres. I discovered that I was skilled at the craft and began training others.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter my husband passed away, I needed to support my household. I focused on working to provide for my family while improving my skills.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"EconomicUm Mohammed al-Jarjawi relies on knitting to provide for her family [Screen grab\/Al Jazeera]<\/p>\n

Small-scale businesses have expanded, ranging from solar-powered phone-charging stations to women knitting baby clothes. They provide households with short-term means of survival, but it is not enough to restore economic stability or generate sustainable, protected employment.<\/p>\n

With 70 percent of electricity networks destroyed, Gaza\u2019s power system has collapsed, forcing people to improvise.<\/p>\n

For Wasim al-Yazji, a makeshift solar-powered charging station is a fragile lifeline that provides some income \u2013 but cannot solve the power crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI opened this charging station to help my family with basic needs, some food and small expenses. I try to support my household through it,\u201d al-Yazji told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

His home used to have a supermarket beneath it, but it was destroyed.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy charging station depends on solar panels, so if the sun doesn\u2019t shine, the charging power is weak and I can\u2019t work for days. Sometimes a whole week passes under clouds without any income,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"EconomicWasim al-Yazji stands next to his makeshift charging station [Screen grab\/Al Jazeera]<\/p>\n

Gaza\u2019s labour market has virtually collapsed, with the UN reporting that the enclave now faces one of the highest unemployment rates in the world.<\/p>\n

For many young men and women, jobs are nowhere to be found, forcing them to pace the streets or wait endlessly for a chance to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been looking for a job for months,\u201d Mohammed Shatat told Al Jazeera. \u201cEven temporary work is hard to find. Every day feels the same\u2026 I go from place to place, asking, hoping, but there\u2019s nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Families are finding ways to survive amid the devastation and destruction, but these informal ventures are no solution to the economic crisis: With hundreds of thousands of people still out of work, unemployment remains a tremendous challenge across the Strip.<\/p>\n

\"EconomicGaza\u2019s unemployment rate is 80 percent, among the highest in the world [Screen grab\/Al Jazeera]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gaza\u2019s unemployment rate has reached 80 percent, among the highest in the world, according to the United Nations.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,113,61,60,45231,1196,43,4268],"class_list":["post-230392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-israel-palestine-conflict","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-palestine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}