Gaza, 17 October 2025 – On International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, Al Mezan reminds the international community that Gaza is currently enduring a total collapse of humanitarian, economic, and social conditions as a result of Israel's genocide in Gaza.

Palestinians in Gaza continue to face extremely unsafe living conditions as public safety and sanitation services have all but disintegrated due to Israel's systematic destruction of Gaza's infrastructure. For the past two years, Israeli forces have flattened public and private property, devastated Gaza's economic, social, and cultural sectors, and have completely annihilated essential public infrastructure. The extreme conditions brought on by Israel's physical destruction of Gaza have been compounded by Israel's use of starvation as a tool of genocide, which was executed by a total siege of humanitarian aid blocking the entry of food, fuel, and basic medical supplies.

The challenges presented by these extremely difficult conditions, further exacerbated by the confinement of forcibly displaced Palestinians to a very limited area of Gaza’s territory, means that poverty is worsening at an unprecedented scale. Estimates from September 2024 stated that the vast majority of Gaza’s population then lived in multidimensional poverty. Since then, the conditions faced by Palestinians in Gaza have only deteriorated further, and Israel continues to systematically destroy Gaza's infrastructure and deny Palestinians access to education, healthcare, housing, employment, personal safety, and freedom of movement.

Access to quality education is a cornerstone of poverty prevention and, before the genocide, was one of the few remaining ways families in Gaza could secure a more dignified future. Gaza's academic institutions have been destroyed over the past two years, and surviving students continue to be denied their right to education, causing a sharp decline in learning outcomes.

Poverty in Gaza is further exacerbated by the destruction of most medical facilities and severe shortages caused by the blockade of fuel and medical supplies, which limits healthcare workers' ability to provide life saving care. Epidemics and diseases are spreading amid a severe hygiene crisis, with older persons and people with disabilities facing increased barriers to medical attention due to the lack of assistive devices, treatments, and medications for chronic illnesses. Palestinians unable to receive proper medical attention in Gaza due the extreme obstacles to care caused by Israel's genocide have also been refused access to care outside of Gaza.

Following the widespread destruction of homes and public infrastructure, Palestinians have been forced to live in either tents or makeshift shelters in schools, public buildings and on the streets due to the skyrocketing cost of increasingly limited spaces available to rent. Access to clean water, sanitation infrastructure, and electricity are also extremely sparse, as are shelter materials—such as tents, tarpaulins, and mobile units.

Unemployment has risen sharply, particularly among casual labourers who are now deprived of job opportunities due to the systematic destruction of key sectors. Especially hard hit is the agricultural sector, with satellite imagery showing that only 5% of agricultural land remains cultivable due to widespread destruction and other restrictions to accessing the land. The collapse of key economic sectors has resulted in near-total unemployment, particularly among young Palestinians aged 15–29, with an estimated three-quarters of them unable to access education, training, and the labor market.

Amid all of these extreme conditions that are worsening poverty in Gaza, access to social protection systems that once helped mitigate poverty are now increasingly difficult. Relief organizations, humanitarian workers, aid distribution centers, and community kitchens, have been repeatedly targeted by Israel. The erosion of relief services caused by Israel's genocide has left the basic needs of Palestinian families in Gaza unmet. In their desperation to access even minimal amounts of food, starving Palestinians have resorted to seeking aid at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) distribution points despite knowing that others have been disappeared or killed at GHF sites.

Al Mezan warns that that Israel's destruction of Gaza's economic, social, and cultural fabric has created unbearable living conditions in a flagrant violation of their responsibilities under international law and are a directly opposed to the United Nations' first Sustainable Development Goal, ending poverty. Al Mezan further affirms that Israel's systematic destruction of Gaza and its deliberate deprivation of basic goods and services are driving the rise of extreme poverty in Gaza, further indicating Israel's use of poverty as a tool of genocide.

Accordingly, Al Mezan calls on the international community to exert meaningful pressure on Israel to lift the blockade of Gaza and allow the entry of humanitarian aid through trusted UN-led mechanisms. Al Mezan further urges the international community to materially support the reconstruction of Gaza's public and economic infrastructure, and the resumption of trusted programs to combat extreme poverty in order to restore the livelihoods of Palestinians in Gaza.