The United Nations World Food Program has warned that escalating Israeli arrests and movement restrictions in the West Bank are increasing the rate of hunger among Palestinians.

According to the United Nations news website, Palestine’s gross domestic product decreased by 22% in the last three months of 2023.

The report attributed this decline to various factors, including closures in the West Bank and the layoff of large numbers of Palestinian workers in Israel. The unemployment rate also rose to 29% in this period, compared to only 13% in the previous three months.

The UN program said that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have lost their work permits in Israel and are unable to leave the West Bank, while commercial activity within the occupied Palestinian territory is limited, putting the economy and humanitarian situation at risk of further deterioration.

It pointed out that since October 7, the situation in the West Bank has been witnessing a political and economic deterioration, the imposition of Israeli restrictions on movement, and the establishment of additional military checkpoints, which has greatly limited freedom of movement.

According to the World Food Program, a large number of workers have lost their jobs, companies have been forced to close or downsize, while the Palestinian Authority faces a severe funding shortfall, affecting the salaries of civil servants.

Food insecurity

Deputy Country Director of the World Food Program in Palestine, Marika Guderian, said that the needs were already high before this current crisis, and have now worsened significantly, adding that there is an urgent need to obtain more funding to help these needy people who are suffering due to the impact of the Gaza war on the West Bank. Western.

According to preliminary assessments conducted by food security sector partners, food insecurity in the West Bank has risen from 350,000 people - about 10% of the population - to an estimated 600,000 people since the outbreak of the current war.

According to the program, this number is expected to increase in the coming months, as the program reported that the largest number of people facing food insecurity reside in Nablus and Hebron.

The World Food Program explained that increasing Israeli restrictions on movement have led to farmers in towns being unable to sell their products, buyers unable to access markets, and food prices have risen significantly in the West Bank, while unemployment and poverty rates are also rising.

The West Bank is witnessing a wave of tension and field confrontations between Palestinians and the Israeli army, including raids and arrests of Palestinians, coinciding with a devastating war on the Gaza Strip that left tens of thousands of civilian victims, most of them children and women.