Palestinians Impoverished; Their Economy in Shambles

From the NY Times:

A study issued today by the World Bank reported that almost two million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are living below a poverty level of $2 a day, triple the number before the conflict began with Israel more than two years ago.

The result means that 60 percent of the Palestinian population in the occupied territories now lives in poverty, as defined by the World Bank.

The study, which covered the period from the beginning of the conflict in September 2000 until the end of 2002, found a steep decline in economic indicators across the board. More than half of Palestinians are unemployed, the study found, and investment in the Palestinian economy collapsed from an estimated $1.5 billion in 1999 to just $140 million last year.

A separate study issued by the United Nations found that Palestinians were apparently turning to subsistence agriculture to survive. Both organizations, which presented their results jointly here today, said that the cause of the collapse of the Palestinian economy was the closures imposed on Palestinian areas by the Israeli Army...