Residents said that tanks have taken control along the border with Egypt and were making raids towards the west and centre of the city.
Unemployment in the Gaza Strip has reached nearly 80% since the war with Israel began last October, the UN labour agency said on Friday, bringing the average unemployment rate across Palestinian territories to more than 50%.
Unemployment in the Gaza Strip has reached 79.1%, while the West Bank has seen joblessness hit nearly 32%, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said in its fourth assessment of the impact of the war on employment. The figures give a combined unemployment rate of 50.8%.
“This excludes Palestinians who have given up on finding a job,” said Ruba Jaradat, ILO regional director for Arab states, reports Reuters.
“The situation is much worse,” warned Jaradat.
Reuters reports that around half of the Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million people lived below the poverty line even before the war.
“Imagine with this very high level of unemployment, people will not be able to secure food for themselves and for their families,” Jaradat said.
“This is also impacting their health …. Even if they have money, there are no hospitals that can accommodate the catastrophic situation there.”
“In the occupied Palestinian territory and particularly in the West Bank, the reduction in incomes has pushed many families into severe poverty,” Jaradat said.
Israel’s Netanyahu to address US Congress on 24 July
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he will “present the truth” about the war against Hamas in Gaza when he addresses the US Congress on 24 July during a visit to Washington, Republican leaders said on Thursday, according to Reuters.
Netanyahu will speak to a joint session of the House of Representatives and the Senate, House speaker Mike Johnson and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement.
“I am very moved to have the privilege of representing Israel before both Houses of Congress and to present the truth about our just war against those who seek to destroy us to the representatives of the American people and the entire world,” Netanyahu said in the statement, reports Reuters.
