Gaza's economic losses amount to $700m since start of war

Gaza's poverty rate is set to soar to more than 90 percent, according to the director of statistics at the Central Bureau of Statistics, Muhammad Qalalwa.

Israel's devastating war on Gaza since 7 October has resulted in at least $700m worth of losses, just in the first month, said Qalalwa on Sunday.

At least 147,000 had stopped working and around 56,000 businesses had closed and unemployment is expected to rise to about 65 percent, he added.

Excluding the current conflict, the economic losses in the Gaza Strip since 2007 when Israel began its siege amounts to about $35bn, said Qalalwa.