UN report: Gaza faces seven-decade setback and acute hunger crisis amid ongoing conflict

Development in Gaza has been set back by as much as 69 years, according to an assessment made by a UN-backed report.

Poverty in Palestine is also set to rise by 74.3% in 2024, impacting a further 2.61 million people who are newly impoverished.

The impact of the year-long war has caused acute hunger, with around 86% of the population experiencing crisis levels of hunger, according to the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UNESCWA).

Efforts to get food supplies into the territory have been hampered by Israel's blockade, as well as ongoing fighting and the breakdown of law and order.

High numbers of displaced mean that thousands of people are packed into squalid tent camps or buildings repurposed as shelters.

In August, Gaza began a campaign to vaccinate children against polio as fears rose the disease would spread with the majority of the territory's healthcare system destroyed.

The UNDP says that the Palestinian economy could be put on a restorative track to align with its pre-war development goals in 10 years, but this would require a comprehensive recovery and reconstruction plan which combines humanitarian aid and strategic investment in recovery and reconstruction.

The report says that lifting economic restrictions is also essential to Gaza's recovery.

Gaza has been under closure by land, sea and air since 2007. Restrictions on the movement of people, goods and technology imports have long impacted its economy before the intensification of Israeli strikes.

The UNDP estimates that Gaza's gross domestic product (GDP) will contract by 35.1% in 2024 with unemployment rising to 49.9%.

Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed over 42,000 people, as stated by the