United Nations: Half of Gaza's homes were destroyed in one month, and poverty haunts the population

The United Nations reported that 50% of the housing stock in Gaza was destroyed in just one month due to Israeli attacks, and that the destruction in Gaza “has reached an unprecedented level,” and that 96% of Gazans who cannot access basic services are now suffering from multiple poverty. Dimensions.

The United Nations Development Program announced that 50% of the housing stock in Gaza was destroyed in one month as a result of the continuous Israeli attacks since October 7.

This came in a report titled: “The Gaza War: The Expected Social and Economic Repercussions on the State of Palestine,” which was presented during a press conference held on Thursday.

The Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and Director of the Regional Office for Arab States at the United Nations Development Programme, Abdullah Al-Dardari, said that 50% of the housing stock in Gaza was destroyed in just one month.

He pointed out, by way of comparison, that Syria lost this percentage of housing in its fourth year of war.

Secretary-General of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), Rula Dashti, noted that "the destruction in Gaza has reached an unprecedented level."

She pointed out that 96% of Gazans who cannot access basic services are now suffering from multidimensional poverty.

Dashti stressed the need for the international community to come together to establish lasting peace.

The report revealed that Palestinian economic activity was subjected to a severe shock as a result of the complete siege on Gaza, the destruction of capital, forced displacement, and restrictions imposed on the movement of people and goods in the West Bank.

He pointed out that approximately 390,000 job opportunities have been lost since the start of the war.

He stated that GDP losses could range between 4% and 12% in 2023, and between 4% and 9% in 2024, compared to pre-war estimates, depending on how long the battles will last.

The report expected that the poverty rate would rise sharply, ranging between 20% and 45%, depending on the duration of the war.

He also expected that the Human Development Index would record a sharp decline, which would set the State of Palestine back between 11 and 16 years, depending on the severity of the war.

He stressed that economic recovery in Gaza will not be achieved immediately after the implementation of the ceasefire, given the extent of the destruction and the weak ability to access resources due to the blockade, including materials and equipment.

Since the outbreak of the war, Israel has cut off supplies of water, food, medicine, electricity and fuel to about 2.3 million Palestinian residents of Gaza, who have been suffering from deteriorating conditions as a result of an ongoing Israeli siege since Hamas won the legislative elections in 2006.

All Afghans will have to go: Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti

Pakistan : When Sarfaraz Bugti was asked by Independent Urdu, he said that no deadline has been given yet to send back the registered Afghan refugees, but they all have to go.

Sarfraz Bugti, Pakistan's caretaker federal interior minister, has said that if there is peace in Afghanistan now, all (legal and illegal Afghan refugees in Pakistan) will have to go back step by step.

Balochistan's Caretaker Information Minister John Achakzai told a press conference in Karachi yesterday that registered Afghan refugees in the country will also be sent back.

In this regard, when Sarfaraz Bugti was asked by Independent Urdu, he said in reply that no deadline has been given yet to send back the registered Afghan refugees, but they all have to go.

He said that 'deadline has not been given yet for the registered Afghan refugees to leave but Afghanistan is now a peaceful country and obviously all of them (registered unregistered refugees) will have to go back.'

A few days before this statement, Caretaker Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar had said that the extraordinary increase in Pakistan's terrorist incidents is meaningful after the unnecessary, irresponsible, misleading and threatening statements of some Afghan leaders.

It is clear from this statement that Pakistan is linking the return of refugees with the activities of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.

After the decision to send back the illegally residing Afghan refugees, some other leaders, including the Interim Prime Minister of Afghanistan Mullah Muhammad Hassan Akhund and the Minister of Defense Mullah Yaqoob, expressed strong reactions in their statements and it was also revealed that Pakistan may have to bear the consequences of this decision.

The caretaker prime minister said that Pakistan has full legal and moral right to send illegal immigrants back to their countries.

How many Afghan refugees have gone?

Pakistan had given a deadline of October 31 to the illegally staying foreigners, since then the process of voluntary and forced evacuation has been going on, but according to experts, it will take about a year to evacuate the Afghans at the current pace.

In the light of the orders of the government of Pakistan, the evacuation of all illegal foreigners including Afghans from the country is going on, but looking at the statistics it is possible that it will take about nine months to evict all the foreign Afghans.

According to the statistics released by the Interior Department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, from September 17 to November 9, more than 197,000 Afghans have gone to Afghanistan through Torkham and Waziristan's border border with Afghanistan.

According to the statistics, there were 14,683 families among those who returned, including more than 55,000 men, more than 42,000 women and up to 99,000 children.

Similarly, according to Jan Achakzai, the caretaker information minister of Balochistan, 80,000 Afghans have returned by November 9, including 26,000 from Sindh province, and this figure was 50,000 as of November 3.

From this, it can be estimated that from November 3 to November 9, 30,000 Afghan refugees have returned, which is an average of 5,000 per day.

If we consider the statistics of Afghan citizens who went back to Torkham on the basis of visa, on the deadline given on October 31, almost 20 thousand more Afghan citizens had gone back to Torkham, but after that the speed of return was slow. Done.

Analyzing the statistics of Torkham from November 1st to 9th (most Afghans have returned via this route), the daily average so far is around 6,000 and if the evacuation of 6,000 is possible on a daily basis. If possible, it will take about nine months to evict up to 1.7 lakh illegal residents.

Now if the daily average of Torkham and Chaman border is calculated, then on a daily basis from November 1 till now, an average is about 12,000 per day and according to this calculation, voluntary return through Chaman and Torkham will take about five months.

Why is the return process slow?

Holding centers have been set up at Landi Kotal, Peshawar and Haripur for Afghan refugees passing through Torkham, where biometrics are taken for all departing refugees except children and women.

The busiest of these holding centers is that of Landi Kotal because that holding center is close to the Torkham border and most of the refugees go there to register and go to Afghanistan via Torkham.