For the two years of Israel's genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, it has simultaneously waged an economic war in the occupied West Bank, bringing about unprecedented financial collapse in the already strangled territory.
Unemployment has skyrocketed with the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs, amid a sharp downturn in trade, industry, and agriculture; as a result, poverty rates have risen sharply.
Ammar Abu Bakr, Secretary of the Federation of Palestinian Chambers of Commerce, Industry, and Agriculture, says one of the main factors contributing to the worsening crisis is "the ban on workers entering [Israel]".
He explains to The New Arab's Arabic-language sister edition, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, that around 200,000 workers "who used to drive more than 35 percent of the West Bank's economy" have been prevented from entering Israel for work since 7 October 2023.
For example, in Jenin, Abu Bakr says the closure of the Jalama checkpoint since October 2023 has dealt a severe blow to the local economy.
Around 20,000 vehicles carrying goods worth about 10 million shekels used to cross daily, along with some 25,000 workers, and its closure has resulted in estimated monthly losses of 20 million shekels.
In northern governorates like Tulkarm and Nablus, the proliferation of checkpoints around the cities and the surrounding countryside – and their frequent closure - has restricted movement between cities and villages (there are now over 1,000 checkpoints now across the West Bank).
Abu Bakr noted that the unemployment rate has risen to about 55 percent, while workers' daily income has fallen, drastically reducing the cash flow circulating in local markets, further stagnating the economy.
West Bank economy paralysed
Abu Bakr added that the spread of checkpoints has caused huge disruption to university and school attendance for many months, which has had a knock-on effect on the local cafes, shops and businesses frequented by students and staff, as well as impeding general movement between governorates, and as a result also reducing income for workers in the transport sector.
The private sector has also incurred heavy losses, amounting to around $1.3 billion by the end of 2024, losses expected to grow in the current year.
According to Abu Bakr, hundreds of businesses have closed due to mounting debts, while elsewhere, like in Tulkarm, Jenin and in Area C, Israeli forces have destroyed businesses and physically devastated entire areas that once housed industrial and commercial enterprises.
Moreover, key sectors such as tourism, on which the governorates of Bethlehem and Jericho depend, have totally collapsed, with losses of an estimated 90 percent.
Meanwhile, Hebron - considered the largest economic hub in the West Bank - has seen a decline of at least 35 percent in industrial production due to the blockade imposed on Gaza, which used to receive one-third of the city's local industrial output.
Massive Losses
According to United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Palestinian economy has lost more than 300,000 jobs since the war began, resulting in a daily loss of around $25.5 million in workers' income, most of them employed in the Israeli labour market as well as West Bank workers.
The seizure of clearance revenues (Palestinian tax funds collected by Israeli authorities on goods imported through Israeli ports) has wreaked further damaged the Palestinian economy, and hamstrung the PA's ability to attempt any measure to alleviate the current economic crisis.
According to the Ministry of Economy, the Israeli occupation government has seized more than 10 billion shekels (around $3 billion) from Palestinian tax revenues, constituting about 68 percent of the PA's total public treasury income.
As a result, the PA has been unable to pay the salaries of public sector employees, settle dues to the private sector, or implement any plans or programmes and the budget deficit rose to 9.5 percent of GDP ($1.3) in 2024.
Researcher and economist Professor Tariq Al-Hajj said: "Unemployment rates are extremely high, and poverty is rampant, which has caused a decline in cash flow, and severely weakened commercial activity - thereby affecting large projects, importers, and merchants".
All of this, Al-Hajj noted, has reduced the PA's ability to collect taxes regardless of Israel's actions, further straining the public budget, especially amid frequent military incursions, and settlement expansion, which has prevented Palestinians from accessing their lands and farms.
Constant killing, ongoing impunity
At the same time as the economy is being suffocated, Israeli forces and illegal settlers are continuing to murder Palestinian civilians with impunity. The number of Palestinians killed in settler attacks in the West Bank since October 7, 2023, rose to 34 on Wednesday, after Jihad Muhammad Ajaj (26) was shot dead by settlers in Deir Jarir, east of Ramallah.
Three other Palestinians were injured by the settlers' gunfire.
According to OCHA, between 7 October 2023 and 2 October 2025, 999 Palestinians – including at least 212 children – were killed in the occupied West Bank. Of those, 193 Palestinians, including at least 39 children, were killed since the start of 2025.
This is an edited translation from our Arabic edition