Unemployment among women in the Gaza Strip has reached more than 60 percent, a spokesperson for a Palestinian women’s organization said on Saturday, February 20. Fida Abu Darbi, the executive officer for the Association of Women’s Work Committees, said the unemployment of women in Gaza had reached the “astronomical” level of 63.3 percent. Abu Darbi’s comments were made during a seminar called “Unemployment among Female Graduates” organized by the association which took place in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip.
The Association’s head in Gaza, Arij al-Atrash, said unemployment was the biggest issue facing the Palestinian economy in Gaza, as the crippling Israeli blockade on the enclave has severely limited opportunities for job creation.
According to Maan News Agency, the UN has warned that, unless current trends are altered, Gaza could become uninhabitable for residents in just five years. “The social, health and security-related ramifications of the high population density and overcrowding are among the factors that may render Gaza unlivable by 2020,” the UN’s development agency said last year.
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