A serious humanitarian crisis is developing fast in the Gaza Strip. While no one is dying of hunger or infectious diseases, most Gaza residents are suffering from hardship and unemployment. The situation is worsening day by day and what can only be defined as a disaster is fast approaching.

Rasha Abou Jalal reported for Al-Monitor that according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics the rate of unemployment in Gaza in the second quarter of 2014 reached more than 44%. Representatives of human rights organizations in the Gaza Strip claim that figures for the past few months — which have yet to be released — paint an even bleaker picture of an unemployment rate of over 50%, i.e., every other adult in Gaza is unemployed.

Another worrying piece of information is that employees and business owners in Gaza are also having a hard time staying afloat. Even those with positions in the Hamas administration find themselves forced to visit the food warehouses of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), to meet the nutritional needs of their families. In fact, today more than ever before, UNRWA provides for the basic needs of most Gaza residents. Many Gazans survive on the flour and other staples that UNRWA provides to the unemployed and employed alike.

Even before the start of Operation Protective Edge on July 8, the economic situation in Gaza was very serious. Still, the enormous devastation of the war and the creeping pace of renovation and reconstruction in its aftermath bode disaster for the Gaza Strip’s 1.8 million residents, just as they do for Israel.