UNCTAD Press conference: Report 2026 on developments in the economy of the Occupied Palestinian Territory

Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to the presentation of UNGTAD's latest report on the UNGTAD assistance to the Palestinian people presented today. We have with us the Acting Secretary-General, who will give some introductory remarks. He's connecting from New York. He's attending the General Assembly. happening, as all of you know, these days in New York. And afterwards, we will connect to Mr. Mutassim El-Agra, who will get into more technical details of this report, which is a longstanding mandate of the General Assembly that UNGTA prepares. Without further ado, Acting Secretary-General Pedro Manuel Moreno, the floor is yours. Thank you.

Thank you, Marcelo. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us for the presentation of UMTAT's report on developments in the economy of the occupied Palestinian territory. As you know, UMTAT has monitored and analyzed the economic conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory for more than four decades. We have specific mandates from the UN General Assembly to report regularly on the economic development in the occupied Palestinian territory, and the report we present today looks at the current situation of the Palestinian economy through mid-2026. I want to first recognize the team of the Assistance to the Palestinian People Unit at UNTAD behind this report and thank them for their outstanding work. The report examines the spiraling crisis in Gaza and the West Bank, the collapse of Gaza's economy with the destruction of homes, human capitals, and years of development, the constraints on economic activity both in Gaza and the West Bank, and the impacts of the growing pressure on Palestinian public finance and fiscal space that poses real systemic risk for the economy. The collapse of the economy of Gaza is the world's most severe economic crisis on record. It has wiped out decades of development and generated an acute economic crisis for its people. 92% of all economic establishments that can generate employment and income in Gaza are now damaged or destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of jobs have been lost since 2023, and unemployment today is unprecedented. Over 90% of the working age population has no employment. Today, the GDP per capita of Gaza is the equivalent of $0.58 per person per day, while price levels are 274% higher than in 2022. We estimate that $71.5 billion will be needed to ensure the reconstruction and recovery of Gaza. And this figure, which is the latest joint assessment by the World Bank, the European Union, and the United Nations, may still rise. The pressure is also visible in fiscal pressure, public finances and the financial system. The report documents a sharp deterioration in the Palestinian government's fiscal position with consequences for the capacity to pay government employees or deliver essential services, with consequences also for businesses and the wider economy. As an example, the fiscal crisis threatens the continuity of healthcare and education, as these two sectors alone account for about 60% of the wage bill. With insufficient aid flows and weak fiscal capacity, the sustainability of these services, essential for people, are at real risk. We highlight this because these pressures are interconnected and often overlooked. A weakening fiscal position affects both suppliers and public services. Businesses cannot operate, trade cannot function, and public services cannot be delivered. Today, the risk of a fiscal crisis triggering a systemic collapse is real. These constraints also shape the capacity of the economy to recover. And the scale of that recovery challenge is enormous. Restoring the collapsed health system, rebuilding destroyed education infrastructure, and other public infrastructure will need to go together with restoring productive capacity, employment, functioning markets, and the ability to business to operate. UNCTAD's report, therefore, identifies the scale of the challenge the costs of the reconstruction, and the areas central to rebuilding productive capacity and a functioning economy for the Palestinian people. But most importantly, it underscores the urgency of reconstruction, and that peace cannot be built on a collapsed economy. I thank you.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Moreno. Now I hand the floor to my colleague and the main driving force behind the report, Mutasyim El-Aghra. Thank you. Mutasyim.

Good afternoon, everyone. This press conference is to launch UNCTAD report to the United Nations Trade and Development Board. It's an annual report. and it has already been presented to member states on 15 September. The report covers the whole occupied Palestinian territory, that is Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. But in addition to this report, UNICTAD also prepares another report to the United Nations General Assembly, and that report will be released soon. It deals exclusively with Gaza. So that upcoming report has a lot more details on the economic situation in Gaza, and I encourage you to read it when it's out. It will be out soon. The central message of this report we are talking about today is that about six decades of occupation have hollowed out the Palestinian economy and de-developed it, and by de-development, I mean development reversed, not just development blocked. We have moved from development blocked to development reversed. And now decades of human development that has been achieved in Gaza has been wiped out. And the same situation prevails in the West Bank, although the intensity of destruction is far more in Gaza. And let us note that the destruction is a dramatic escalation of a pattern that dates back to 1967 with the onset of occupation. In other words, the report maintains that history did not start in October 2023. History goes back much longer. If you check the report, you can see that the numbers speak for themselves. Explanatory words are hardly needed. Here are some numbers in addition to what Mr. Assistant Secretary General has just mentioned. In Gaza, the military operation have gutted out nearly every business. That means productive capacity is wiped out, while the entire population is displaced and condemned to multidimensional poverty. By multidimensional poverty, I mean not just income poverty. It's also a lack of proper shelter, a lack of access to basic services like health and education and sanitation. Before the onset of this crisis in October 2023, two out of three residents were poor. Today, everyone in Gaza is multidimensionally poor. That is to say, the severe crisis predates October 2023. What happens since October 2023 is that a catastrophic situation has got far worse. In Gaza, housing sustains the largest damage, estimated at $19 billion. In 2025, annual GDP per capita in Gaza fell to $212, $212 per person per year. That's among the lowest in the world. Agriculture is down 94%, and only 1.5% of Gaza's cropland is still usable and accessible. Well, that means total dependence on humanitarian food aid. Industry in Gaza is down 94%. Construction is down 99%. These numbers indicate that the economy has been wiped out. The economy has been erased nearly totally. 93% of school facilities need full reconstruction. And students in Gaza have lost several years of education, and the consequences for the human capital formation on future earning potential and future welfare is obvious, too obvious to spell. Over half of the hospitals are nonfunctional, and as inflation has skyrocketed, as Mr. Rezig has just said, as the cost of key items has nearly tripled since 2022, since 2023. Well, that means that with incomes falling to a little bit more than half a dollar per day, prices have tripled for a starved, displaced, and multidimensionally poor population. As far as unemployment is concerned, in the whole occupied Palestinian territory, unemployment was 49% in 2025. 29% in the West Bank were unemployed, and 78% in Gaza were unemployed. But these numbers understates the problem, because they do not take into account people who are discouraged, and they stop looking for work. because they lost hope. If we add these people, the burden of unemployment is far more. And now, nine out of 10 working age population in Gaza are unemployed. And those, like 10 percent, who are employed, the quality of jobs leaves a lot to be desired. For the whole Palestinian economy, GDP grew by 4.3% in 2025. But that's a low base illusion, because in the previous year, in 2024, the economy has shrunk by so much. So if you compare GDP in 2025 to 2022, before this crisis, the economy, GDP has shrunk by 20%. And the GDP per capita has shrunk by 25%. So the positive number for positive growth number for 2025 is just a statistical low base illusion. And things got worse in 2026. We just have the numbers for the first quarter of 2026. And the Palestinian economy has declined by 6.6%. So things are getting worse again. Now, I turn to settlements in the West Bank. The report highlights the expansion of settlements and observes that settlements are illegal under international law, yet their construction and expansion have accelerated. Settlements are particularly relevant to economic development because their growth dispossesses the Palestinian people of their land and natural resources, and thus preempts prospect for economic development. Settlement expansion simply means Palestinians are losing their land, water, natural resources, mineral resources, and everything that having a land entails. The existence and expansion of settlements, not just their expansion, their mere existence violates Security Council Resolution 2334 of 2016, and it violates the 2024 landmark ruling by the International Court of Justice. So let us know that the existence of settlements itself is illegal, not just their expansion. And the report notes a clear shift from de facto annexation of Palestinian land to formal annexation. And settlements also erode the prospects for the two-state solution, the framework the international community has long endorsed as the only plausible path for peace. So in addition to the growth of settlements and dispossession of Palestinian natural resources, restrictions on the movement of people and goods in the West Bank have intensified in 2025. There were 925 obstacles to the movement of Palestinian people and their goods. The Palestinian people want to move by themselves or to move their products from point A to point B, they have to deal with 925 obstacles. These obstacles increase the distance traveled, they increase the time traveled, they increase the financial cost of traveling, and that erodes the competitiveness of Palestinian producers and also has negative impact on social, cultural life. Meanwhile, the destruction of Palestinian structures here in 2025, 1,660 buildings or structures were demolished by the occupying power. And the demolitions result in the displacement of thousands of Palestinian peoples from their homeland. Donor-funded structures are not spared. Sometimes Palestinians are forced to demolish their own homes to avoid paying extra fines if the occupying power demolishes the structures on their behalf. The report also notes that settler violence has increased in 2025. And so violence against Palestinian people and against their products and assets combines with the expansion of settlements to create a coercive environment that pushes Palestinian people out of their ancestral land, and while settlement expansion entails the movement of citizens of the State of Israel to Palestinian land and thus altering the demographic composition of the West Bank in violation of international law. As Mr. Secretary General has just indicated the fiscal crisis engulfing the Palestinian government has worsened. And under the Paris Protocol, Israel collect Palestinian revenue on behalf of the Palestinian government and transfer it to the Palestinian government. This mechanism allows Israel to control two-thirds of Palestinian fiscal resources. So this also gives it the power to impose unilateral deduction and to withhold the transfer of these revenues to the Palestinian government. Since May 2025, that's over a year now, Israel has withheld all cleans revenue transfers. That is two-thirds of Palestinian fiscal revenue. The ensuing fiscal crisis poses serious risks to the capacity of the Palestinian government to provide basic governance and fund social welfare or education and health and all the normal expenditure that governments do around the world. And the crisis has also forced the Palestinian government to heavily borrow from domestic banks, and it also forced it to pay partial salaries. In fact, it has been paying partial salaries since 2021. So now for about five years, civil servants have been receiving partial salaries that range from 50% of their dues to 70% now. So as a result, civil servants are now borrowing heavily from domestic banks to bridge their needs. So that means the banking sector is doubly exposed to the government. So if the fiscal crisis forces the government to default in payment to the banking sector, and civil servants cannot pay back to the banking sector from which they borrowed, that can undermine the banking system and can foster a crisis. But if this crisis reaches a certain level, its impact will not be just financial. It will spill over to the whole economy. and it will affect every aspect of social, political, economic, and trade life. So there are other problems the banking system is facing. For example, the shortness of the letters of indemnity issued by Israel. The only way for Palestinian banks to access international trade and international finance is to work through Israeli banks. And for Israeli banks to work with the Palestinian with Palestinian banks, they need guarantees from the Israeli government that they will not face charges related to money laundering or to financing of terrorism and things like that. This the Israeli authorities issue these letters, they can be as short as two weeks. Two weeks is just too short, and that fosters costly uncertainty. Another problem is the accumulation of fiscal shekels with Palestinian banks, the Palestinian banks now have billions in Israeli shekels that they cannot, uh, transfer back. to Israel or deposited with Israeli banks. In other words, Israel does not accept the currency it issues, and the Palestinians are compelled to use. So Palestinians need to transfer these physical shekels into digital balances so that they can finance the importation of essential goods. And this capacity is being disrupted, and it has been weakened, and it's also poses another risk to the Palestinian economy and to the Palestinian banking sector. The report emphasizes that the Palestinian government has been tasked with responsibilities far beyond its resources. It has no sovereign currency, no monetary policy tools, no control of its borders, very limited fiscal space. At the same time, The damages incurred in Gaza alone are $71.5 billion. Obviously, the Palestinian government cannot shoulder this financial burden. It doesn't have the resources. And that puts the onus and responsibility on the international community, not only to fund recovery and reconstruction, but also to provide urgent and vital fiscal support to the Palestinian government. both budgetary support and for development support. That is essential for the Palestinian government to survive. The report argues that a sovereign, independent Palestinian state, as called for by United Nations resolutions, is a precondition for regional and global peace. But that state cannot be built on a collapsed economy. That is the core message of this report. I thank you.

Thank you. Thank you very much for this very comprehensive overview of the report and the context, of course, for the economic analysis, which is the main focus of the report presented today. Reconstruction needs reaching 71.5 billion, fiscal pressures threatening macroeconomic stability risks to the banking sector overall cross-cutting economic crisis and, of course, the implications for the reconstruction needs. We open the floor to questions. You know the drill, name and outlet that you represent in the room have always the first go. Thank you.

Thank you very much for this briefing. Alexandre Grobois, Agence France-Presse. Mr. Moreno spoke about the worst economic crisis ever recorded worldwide. Could you please elaborate a little bit on that, perhaps drawing comparison with other parts of the world? And the second question regarding the risk of a systemic collapse, Mr. Moreno also mentioned. Could you explain the chain reaction that might trigger that, please?

Report, the economic crisis in Gaza is the worst on record, and that record dates back to 1960, according to the Uppsala database. And the World Bank did work on that, and it describes the crisis in Gaza as the worst on record, based on the depths of the... decline of GDP and the time needed to recover to pre-crisis condition. So in that sense, it is the worst on record, but that record dates back to 1960. And according to very specific measures, which is the depths of the plunge in GDP and the time needed to recover. Regarding the fiscal crisis, your next question was the fiscal crisis, right? Systemic collapse. Yeah, systemic collapse, yeah. You have the Palestinian Government that have been borrowing heavily from domestic banks because foreign aid has not been sufficient. It has been actually very low in recent years. And Israel has stopped transferring the Palestinian fiscal revenue to the government. That is about two-thirds of its fiscal revenue. Also, the fiscal revenues have decreased drastically. because economic activity has decreased drastically. I said like GDP is now down 20% compared to 2022. So if your economy shrinks, then your tax revenue shrinks. And at the same time, the pressure to provide support for the poor and for the war injured and to rebuild whatever vital infrastructure that has been destroyed increases. So you get the pressure from both the revenue side and both from the expenditure side. The government has been borrowing from domestic banks. It has no access to international banks. It has no currency. It cannot inflate its expenditure by just printing money. And it has been paying partial salaries. It has also been borrowing heavily from the pension fund. That's now destabilizing the pension fund. It has also been defaulting on payment to private contractors, whoever they provide health services or other services, the government defaults or delays its payment to them. So at some point, these providers and the bank cannot sustain that forever. And even civil servants may not be able to pay to banks from which they borrowed. And then you will have a banking collapse. If you have a banking collapse, then the whole economy will be disrupted. And the political and social and humanitarian consequences will be immense.

Thank you. Thank you for the question. Yes, we have another one in the room. Thank you.

Merci beaucoup. Moussa Aasi, Al Mayadin TV. Je pose ma question en français pour Monsieur Pedro, mais il peut répondre en anglais s'il veut. Ma question concernant le matériel de reconstruction pour Gaza, est-ce que depuis l'accord de Charm el-Cheikh en octobre passé, on a constaté des entrées de matériel pour reconstruire l'économie ou bien une partie de l'économie gazaouie? Et aussi donc d'autres secteurs, bien entendu, donc le secteur de santé, les hôpitaux. Est-ce qu'on a constaté une entrée de ce matériel ou rien du tout? Et le conseil qui a été donc formé au début de l'année, le conseil de pour la paix pour la pour Gaza, qu'est-ce qu'il a amené en fait au niveau économique et au niveau reconstruction à Gaza? Merci beaucoup.

Yes, for, yes, Mr. Moreno in New York, but of course, Mutasim stands by to go into more analytical technical details. Thank you.

Yes, can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you. Thank you.

Okay, regarding the Board of Peace, it is a separate mechanism. The Secretary General has made clear that the Board of Peace is not replacing the United Nations. So any questions about this political or governance role are not for us to assess. I will give the floor to Mutazim, to the aid that has come into the strait.

Thank you very much.

I did not get the question because I don't speak French, but I understand that it's about the World of Peace.

OK, I have a question in Arabic. I'm saying from the time of the agreement in Sharm el-Sheikh, have you noticed any equipment for rebuilding the Gaza sector, whether on the economic level or on the level of hospitals? Have you entered materials for construction into the sector? And are there any changes? Are the United Nations, the UN, providing aid for rebuilding the economic sectors, agriculture, industry, etc.?

The entry of reconstruction materials to Gaza is still severely restricted, and now entry of materials is limited to basic humanitarian needs. So the needs are vast, and whatever is allowed in is far from sufficient, and that situation continues. UNICTAD has been working within its mandate to provide advisory services to the Palestinian government, to the private sector, to the civil society, also working on crystallizing international consensus on the development needs of the Palestinian people. It has also joined the Multi-Trust Fund for the redevelopment and reconstruction of the occupied Palestinian territory. It's members of that trust fund are United Nation agencies in the field in Palestine, also the World Bank and other important institutions who are part of that. But of course, for reconstruction to start, there are preconditions. The first condition is peace and sustainable ceasefire and enabling political and security conditions and financing. But we are already working on plans for how to proceed for rebuilding the Palestinian economy. For example, in our latest report to the General Assembly, which will be released soon, we talk in details about the best way to proceed in rebuilding Gaza.

Thank you. Thank you very much, and also for the patience with the language back and forth. We have a couple of questions from those connected online. First, because this audio is not working, so I'll have to read it out. It's from Jeremy Lange from Radio France Internationale. It goes to the growth prospects. And his question is the following. How can the economy even grow by 34% with 94% of the population in Gaza unemployed, what kind of economy is left in Gaza?

Yes, in the report we say that in 2025, GDP in Gaza grew by 34%, but that is when comparing 2025 to 2024. So 2024 was a complete disaster. The economy has completely brought to a standstill. And there was a ceasefire, twice ceasefire in 2025, and because of that ceasefire, a little bit of humanitarian goods were allowed in Gaza. And so there was some form of economic activity, but extremely limited. People working with international organizations, including the United Nations, people working with relief, and there were jobs in the informal market, like selling petty stuff in the streets, selling personal items, all those types of things. And in absolute numbers, That size of economic activity was very, very small, but it has been compared to an even smaller base in 2024. That's why we call it a statistical illusion, not a recovery in any meaningful sense of the word.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Mutasim. Okay, no follow-up. Thank you, Jeremy. And chat is open if you need anything else. Again, online to Dina Abi Saab from APTN. Please, the floor is yours. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Marcelo. I'm Dina Abi Saab. I'm the president of Akano, and I would like to, not to ask a direct question to Mr. El-Akra. I just want to say that I'm concerned about the way this report is being handled. It was already presented to UNCTAD's Trade and Development Board on 15 September during a session which many countries spoke, so it's difficult to understand why it is now being circulated under embargo as though it were entirely new. For journalists, for ACANU journalists, we had a discussion. And let me just summarize that this leaves this little genuinely newsworthy to report, especially as some colleagues have already covered the presentation. In addition, yesterday's e-mail, and I sent you an e-mail about this, did not clearly explain how journalists could access the full report. And This lack of clarity combined with the timing of the embargoed release is actually frustrating and undermine an effective media rollout. Thank you.

Thank you. I pass the floor now to Ravi Kant, please. Thank you. Also online.

Yeah, thank you. Thank you very much for giving me an opportunity. I have about three questions. To start with, my question goes directly to Mr. Pedro. Does UNCTAD recognize that Palestine suffered a genocide of historic proportions, where the entire society has been destroyed by one country, Israel? does UNTAD argues or calls for Israel to bear the costs for the reconstruction of Palestine, since it has single-handedly destroyed the country and continues to destroy the country even to date? The third question is, Though you have said that it has nothing to do with the Board of Construction, the timing of your press conference and the revealing of the report, as my colleague, the President, has very clearly pointed out, that it seems to be linked with some kind of ulterior purposes instead of doing things at the time and on which, at the time in which they are supposed to be done and they are being hidden for a very long time. Thank you.

Thank you. We take note of the three questions. I pass the floor to the Assistant Secretary General. I think anything going beyond the purpose of presenting this report here in terms of its finding, we will take offline. We're happy to engage. And so we remain, we ensure this remains a focused session. Thank you very much. To the Acting Secretary General, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Marcelo. Thank you, colleagues. I mean, we have a very specific mandate. We analyze economic conditions and the requirements for recovery in terms of productive capacity, jobs, functioning markets, public finances, banking, trade, and investments. What we say is in the report. And so we are not proposing or evaluating any political or governance related to the for that we refer to the Secretary-General 's statements on the matter.

Thank you. I see there is a follow-up, Ravi, or is this a hand still up? Please.

Yes, follow-up. Mr. Pedro, you know, I mean, all these economic consequences that poor Palestinians are facing, as being elaborated by your colleague, Mr. El-Guerra, are... because of a certain slaughter and genocide that has taken place, which has been recognized by other UN organizations, including the International Court of Justice, your silence on this issue actually sends very bad signals about your true intentions of releasing this report at this point of time. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for the follow-up, and we take note of your opinion. Thank you very much. Are there any questions left in the room or from those connected online? Okay. I don't see any questions left, so thank you for the... Oh, there is one. Yes, of course. Sorry, I didn't see you.

I think it's very important to see your response about the president of Akany question and remarks. Can we have your opinion about that, please? Your report was discussed in the public session 10 days ago, and your information about this report was published. Why now we have a press conference? And I think that we have the reason, the whole press conference room, there is nobody here, just my colleague from France Press and me.

As you know, originally it was scheduled for last week, precisely during the first days of the Trade and Development Board, as it traditionally happens. So this is not a change of procedure. So this is a very, and it's fact-based. We booked the room. It was postponed because precisely the acting Secretary-General, who was still in Geneva, had to cancel due to to having to brief the Security Council on the Strait of Hormuz. This is the reason for the rescheduling that was planned. And again, if it doesn't really refer to the work behind the report presented by our colleague, I invite you to continue this conversation Thank you very much.

No further questions? Okay.

Thank you very much, everybody, for attending.