Palestine
Palestine exhibits ecosystem destruction: Gaza's GDP contracted 84% by 2025, 80-96% of agricultural assets destroyed, 91% of population facing acute food insecurity.
Palestine experienced economic collapse ranking among the most severe in modern history: Gaza's GDP contracted 84% by 2025 compared to 2023, while the West Bank declined 13% over the same period. The combined economy shrank 26% in 2024, erasing 22 years of development progress in under two years—GDP per capita returned to 2003 levels. Unemployment reached 51% overall (80% in Gaza), with 91% of Gaza's population facing acute food insecurity by late 2024.
The destruction extends beyond statistics: 80-96% of Gaza's agricultural assets—irrigation, livestock, orchards, machinery—were decimated by early 2024, and 82% of private sector businesses were damaged or destroyed. Food prices rose 440% year-over-year by October 2024; fuel costs increased 200%. Public debt reached $14.6 billion by November 2025, exceeding 100% of GDP. The fiscal crisis compounds: between January 2019 and April 2025, cumulative deductions and withheld revenues totaled $1.76 billion—equivalent to 12.8% of 2024 GDP.
Reconstruction estimates exceed $70 billion, with projections indicating Gaza will require 13 years and the West Bank 3 years to restore pre-crisis GDP per capita. The biological parallel is ecosystem destruction: like an environment stripped of productive capacity, recovery requires not just time but fundamental rebuilding of the infrastructure that enables economic metabolism. The territory demonstrates what happens when carrying capacity is systematically reduced—the population can neither sustain itself locally nor emigrate freely.