Ramallah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP)

The number of poor families could double this year in the occupied West Bank due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which threatens public finances and jobs in the Palestinian Territories, the World Bank alerted on Monday.

So far, these Territories have been relatively spared from the pandemic with a total of 447 cases and three deaths among the estimated five million inhabitants of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

But the crisis has squeezed economic activity, as in many places, at a time when local authorities are under pressure to increase both health and economic recovery measures.

"Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, about a quarter of Palestinians lived below the poverty line, 53% in Gaza and 14% in the West Bank. Preliminary estimates suggest that the number of poor households will drop to 30% in the West Bank and 64% in Gaza, "said the World Bank in its report released Monday.

The impact is expected to be greater in the West Bank as tens of thousands of Palestinians living there work in Israel, where wages are higher but which is also affected by the crisis. As a result of the pandemic, the number of these workers has dropped, which contributes to a "significant reduction" in their financial contribution.

After weeks of being banned from entering Israel, thousands of workers from the West Bank were allowed to return in early May as part of a policy to gradually restart the local economy.

According to an agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, 40,000 of the approximately 100,000 workers have been able to return. And, on Sunday, that number rose to just over 60,000, according to Israeli authorities.

But, "at this stage, it is not possible to know how long it will take the economy to recover from the containment measures", underlines the World Bank which expects a contraction of the GDP in the Palestinian Territories oscillating between 7.6 and 11.2% this year.

This situation will also weigh on the Palestinian budget with a shortfall of 1.5 billion dollars (about 1.3 billion euros) expected this year, almost double compared to last year.

The situation is expected to become "increasingly difficult" for the Palestinian Authority, which will see its income decrease but its health spending increase, the World Bank notes.

In this context, and to boost employment in the local technology sector, the World Bank advocates in particular in favor of measures to relaunch the mobile telephone subsidiary in the Palestinian Territories, while 3G still prevails in the West Bank, and 2G in Gaza.

- Annexation? -

In a report released on Sunday, the UN for its part calls for "bolder and different measures to be put in place to avoid economic collapse".

The organization hailed the Israeli loan of 800 million shekels (about 210 million euros) to the Palestinian Authority which "will be an essential fiscal lifeline" and is to be granted in installments starting in June to offset the loss of income caused by the health crisis.

But the United Nations has also alerted to the disastrous consequences of the Israeli plan to annex sections of the West Bank, the Palestinian territory that the Hebrew state has occupied since 1967.

The Israeli government must decide from July 1 on the implementation of the American plan for the Middle East, which includes the annexation by Israel of the Jordan Valley and Jewish settlements in the West Bank, and which is greeted by a large part of the Israeli political class but lambasted by the Palestinians.

In addition to "violating international law", the annexation could "seriously complicate the development assistance that the United Nations and other organizations provide to the Palestinians," according to the United Nations.

"If the current trend continues, the achievements of the Palestinian government over the past 25 years will fade, the security situation (...) will worsen, which will inevitably lead to more radical policies on both sides," they warned. .

© 2020 AFP