World Bank estimates damage to vital Gaza infrastructure at US$18.5 billion

He World Bank (WB) maintains that the conflict between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas has caused some US$18.5 billion in damage to vital infrastructure in the Palestinian enclave of Loopaccording to a report released Tuesday.

This is equivalent to 97% of the combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza in 2022, according to the study carried out jointly by the WB, the United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU).

The work partially evaluates the damage recorded by Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip, carried out in retaliation for the attack launched by Hamas in the south of the country at the beginning of last October.

The report maintains that the destruction of homes represents a large part of these “vital infrastructures” destroyed -a 72%-, while a 19% corresponds to the health, education and services sectors (19%). The remaining figure corresponds to commercial and industrial facilities.

Currently, there are more than one million homeless people, out of the total of 2.2 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip before the start of the conflict. This is double the previous estimate, published in mid-December.

Even worse. More than half of the population is on the brink of starvation, while almost all suffer from malnutrition or food insecurity.

Regarding equipment and sanitary facilities, the 84% were destroyed or damaged, in front of the 60% at the end of 2023. Those that still function have almost no water or electricity to care for their patients or the injured.

The running water supply and sanitation system was only functioning at 5% capacity in early October and Gaza’s education system is considered to have completely collapsed. He too 92% of the primary road network was destroyed.

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