Crammed in a tiny tent at a UN-run school in central Gaza City, Alaa Alzanin shelters with his wife, five children, his 71-year-old mother, and younger sister after losing their Beit Hanoon home.

According to a Sunday Al Jazeera report, he has been displaced eight times and is now unemployed like hundreds of thousands across Gaza: “Now I have no work, I can’t provide for my family,” said the former day laborer who once earned 40–50 shekels per day in infrastructure and farming.

In Jabalia, 53-year-old Majed Hamouda—who has polio and whose wife is a thalassaemia carrier—relies on charity after aid payments stopped.

“We are like dead people, but not buried yet,” he said, describing days with no food and sending his son to collect plastics to sell; the boy, once a prize-winning “Little Scientist,” now gathers nylon to burn for cooking. “Now it’s become a dream to eat a tomato or a cucumber.”

Gaza’s economy has collapsed, driving hunger and extreme unemployment.

Aid falls far short of daily needs amid restricted crossings; unemployment has reached around 80 percent in Gaza, while GDP plunged 83 percent in 2024 and per capita income fell to $161—among the lowest globally—erasing decades of development.

Recovery hinges on reopening crossings, restoring inputs, and supporting SMEs to rebuild industry, agriculture, and services.