The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (“ UNCTD “) issued a report (9/1/15) on the status of its assistance to the Palestinian people in the occupied territories (Gaza and the West Bank). The report paints a bleak picture. It does not clearly separate between the Gaza strip and the West Bank. For example, it does not spell out the revenues available to Hamas in its administration of Gaza. Nevertheless, the following can be gleaned with respect to Gaza.

The population of Gaza is 1.8 million people, approximately the combined total of the cities of San Francisco and San Jose California.

Through eight years of military blockade and three successive wars in 2008, 2012, and 2014, Israel has destroyed and degraded the Gazan infrastructure and economy. Unemployment in the Gaza strip is at 44 percent. Six in 10 households suffer from food insecurity.

Since 2007 exports from Gaza are banned and imports and transfers of cash are severely limited. Flow of all but the most basic humanitarian goods has been suspended. Per capita GDP in Gaza is 74% of what it was prior to the Oslo accords. The report indicates a real GDP per capita in constant 2004 dollars of ~$1,000–about $2.70/day.

Among young women the unemployment rate is 80%. The ramifications of persistently high unemployment will be devastating in the long term, says the report, as training and education among the long term unemployed become obsolete.

The latest military operation in 2014 has destroyed virtually all of what was left of the middle class in Gaza, says the report, relegating “almost all of the population into destitution and dependence on international humanitarian aid.”

During the military operation last summer, more than 500,000 Gazans were displaced, and more than 100,000 remain so as of mid-2015. A partial list of damage listed in the report includes:’