The main cause of unemployment in Gaza is attributed to the three Israeli wars on the Strip, alongside the the heavy restrictions Israel continues to impose on the movement of people and goods in and out of the coastal enclave, according to the latest UNRWA report.

In a special report published Sunday, UNRWA said these factors have crushed the enclave’s formerly trade-based economy and exacerbated extreme poverty, food insecurity and hopelessness.

Further fuelled by the political divide between Hamas and Fatah, over 46.6% of Gaza’s workforce and 71% of women are unemployed as of the third quarter of 2017.