Israel's war against Hamas has damaged around half of all buildings in the Gaza Strip and rendered the Palestinian territory uninhabitable, the United Nations said Wednesday.
"The level of destruction from the latest Israeli military operation rendered (Gaza) uninhabitable," the UN Conference on Trade and Development said in a report.
The report also affirmed that the devastation of civilian infrastructures, including health facilities, "underscores the impossibility of the recovery and development of Gaza without serious and speedy efforts" by the international community to restore peace and secure the high levels of funding required to bring a semblance of socioeconomic normality back to the devastated Strip.
Monetary poverty has widened and deepened engulfing the entire population of Gaza.
It also said that multidimensional poverty is even worse because it takes into account deprivation of education, and basic infrastructure services to capture a more realistic picture of poverty.
"Living conditions in Gaza are at their lowest since occupation began in 1967 and will worsen even more unless the military operation stops."
The UN warned that the future of the Palestinian people will be largely determined by the actions of the Government of Israel, donors and the international community.
"A new phase of economic rehabilitation predicated on peacebuilding cannot simply take as its goal a return to the pre-October 2023 status quo. Only by ending the military confrontation and fully lifting the blockade of Gaza can there be hope to resolve sustainably the political, socioeconomic and humanitarian crisis engulfing Gaza."
Meanwhile, the health ministry in Gaza said Wednesday at least 26,900 people have been killed in the besieged Palestinian territory since the war with Israel broke out on October 7.
The latest toll includes 150 deaths over the past 24 hours, a ministry statement said, adding that 65,949 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the fighting began.
