Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 10th Nov. International Labour Organization on Thursday is seeking $20 million to respond to the critical needs of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian workers and employers affected by the current conflict between Israel and Hamas.
The funding appeal launched in Geneva will be used to implement a three-phase programme to provide immediate relief and support longer-term job and business recovery, as well as social protection.
ILO Director-General Gilbert Houngbo said “The hostilities have resulted in and continue to cause both a tragic loss of human life, and an unprecedented loss of livelihoods, jobs, income, businesses, and civilian infrastructure.”
The agency has published a bulletin that examines how the conflict which erupted on 7 October has so far impacted the labour market and livelihoods in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
ILO estimates at least 61 per cent of the labour market in Gaza has been wiped out; equivalent to 182,000 jobs.
The conflict is also having spillover effects in the West Bank, where nearly 24 per cent of employment has also been lost, equivalent to 208,000 jobs. Put together, this translates to $16 million in daily labor income that has been lost.
Mr. Houngbo outlined the destruction in Gaza. He said entire neighborhoods have been destroyed, infrastructure has been severely damaged, businesses have closed, large-scale internal displacement has occurred, and the lack of water, food and fuel are crippling economic activity.
Over 6,000 residents who were working in Israel prior to the conflict are presently stranded in the West Bank amidst dire conditions.
UN health and aid workers on the ground are also in extreme danger.
The access measures enforced by Israel across the OPT have effectively revoked access rights, as workers and traders with valid permits are prevented from entering Israel and East Jerusalem through any checkpoints.
Trade restrictions have also been applied for vital goods transiting from Israeli ports to the OPT, further jeopardizing the basic needs of families and the overall economy.
ILO said that Gaza has been under Israeli blockade since 2006, so conditions were dire even before the conflict.
Gaza has had persistently high rates of poverty and vulnerability and its unemployment rate – 46.4 per cent as of the second quarter of this year is among the highest in the world, ILO reported.
ILO Regional Director for Arab States, Ruba Jaradat warned “The already huge losses our research has identified are only projected to increase if the conflict and tragic humanitarian crisis continue, with repercussions that will be felt for many years to come,”.
ILO response programme aims to address the impact of the crisis in three phases.
The first focuses on immediate relief and is already underway. It entails providing immediate assistance such as emergency livelihood support schemes to Palestinian workers, including the Gazans who are now stranded in the West Bank after losing their jobs inside Israel.
The ILO has channeled $2 million of its internal resources towards emergency relief interventions and preliminary data collection. It is also working on allocating further resources to implement the response plan.
The second stage covers data collection and impact analysis to help plan, prioritize and fine-tune interventions.
The final phase addresses recovery. The focus will be on job creation through “employment intensive infrastructure recovery” and other means, in addition to social protection measures and recovery of jobs and businesses, ILO concluded.
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