05/10/2025
GENEVA — UN Experts* today warned of the severe economic emergency and catastrophic harm to human rights stemming from Israel’s attacks on the Gaza strip and its wider financial stranglehold across the occupied Palestinian territory.
“Economic life in Gaza has been decimated by sheer physical destruction, blockade and siege, and repeated forced displacement,” the experts said.
They stressed that most commercial, agricultural and industrial assets have been damaged. Unemployment has surged to over 80 per cent. GDP has dramatically shrunk, and trade stalled. Poverty is endemic. Famine has been declared.
“There is now a liquidity crisis in Gaza,” the experts said. Most banks and ATMs have been destroyed. Israel has blocked the inflow of new currency, with severe cash scarcity driving drastic cost-of-living inflation and a decline in the value of wages. Cooking oil prices rose by 1,200% and flour by 5,000% by mid-2025. Humanitarian workers are reportedly losing nearly 40 per cent of their salaries just to access their wages. Digital payments are impeded by electricity and telecommunications outages.
“The disproportionate civilian harm caused by Israel’s blockade and siege violates international humanitarian law and the economic and social rights of Palestinians,” the experts said.
“Israeli laws restricting UNRWA, and the suspension of its funding by the United States, have put thousands of jobs at risk and impede the vital humanitarian assistance that is even more critical due to Gaza’s economic collapse,” they said.
The experts noted that the occupied West Bank is also under increasing financial strain. Israel has arbitrarily diverted and withheld tax revenues owed to the Palestinian Authority, preventing salary payments and undermining liquidity, in violation of the Oslo Accords.
“Israel has threatened not to renew the annual waiver of terrorist financing laws that allows Israeli banks to process transactions with Palestinian banks in November 2025,” the experts said. “This would cut Palestinians off from the global financial system.”
Work permits have been suspended for 100,000 Palestinian workers, slashing cash inflows that previously represented a quarter of all gross national income.
“These measures exacerbate heavy economic losses from the illegal taking of land and the illegal exploitation of natural resources by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank,” the experts said.
In the past two years, restrictions on the Palestinian economy have intensified purportedly to counter terrorism, resulting in unjustified de-risking by global banks, account closures, and blocked humanitarian transfers.
“Cumulatively, these measures seriously violate Israel’s obligations to guarantee the human rights to an adequate standard of living, work, food, water, sanitation, health, life, and freedom from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment,” the experts said. “They also violate Israel’s obligations as the occupying power to maintain economic life for the benefit of the population, and not to illegally expropriate property or exploit natural resources.”
“These measures also impede the collective rights of the Palestinian people to economic self-determination, control over their natural wealth and resources, and development,” they said. “Israel must refrain from intervening in the State of Palestine through economic coercion and respect its sovereignty.”
The economic rights of the Palestinian people have been repeatedly affirmed by the International Court of Justice and the General Assembly, and most recently at the High-Level International Conference on Palestine in July 2025.
“We call on Israel to immediately lift the blockade and siege of civilians in Gaza, end violations of international humanitarian law, remove currency restrictions, restore cash flows, establish secure cash distribution systems, and facilitate digital payments,” the experts said. “Israel must also commit to the permanent renewal of the banking waiver in the occupied West Bank and stop holding Palestinian tax revenues to ransom.”
They recalled that the International Court of Justice’s 2024 advisory opinion demanded that Israel bring its illegal occupation to an end as soon as possible. The General Assembly has given Israel a deadline of 17 September 2025.
“The international community must act urgently to compel Israel to stop violating fundamental rules of international law, respect the economic rights of the Palestinian people, alleviate the humanitarian crisis and prevent financial collapse,” the experts said.
*The experts:
• Ben Saul, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism;
• Attiya Waris, Independent Expert on the effects of foreign debt and other related international financial obligations of States on the full enjoyment of all human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights;
• George Katrougalos, Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order;
• Carlos Arturo Duarte Torres, Working Group on the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas.
https://www.un.org/unispal/document/un-experts-15sep25/
