Israel’s war in Gaza has created a “human-made abyss”, and reconstruction is likely to cost more than $70bn (£53bn) over several decades, the United Nations has said.

The UN’s trade and development agency (Unctad) said in a report that Israel’s military operations had “significantly undermined every pillar of survival” and that the entire population of 2.3 million people faced “extreme, multidimensional impoverishment”.

The report said Gaza’s economy had contracted by 87% over the course of 2023-2024, leaving its gross domestic product (GDP) per capita at just $161, among the lowest globally.

The report also found that “violence, accelerated settlement expansion and restrictions on worker mobility” hd “decimated the economy” in the West Bank. ….more