Israel-Hamas war: Crisis in West Bank clouds Gaza hopes

The new Palestinian Prime Minister is a former World Bank executive who vows to fight corruption and waste. The finance minister worked at PwC. The foreign ministry is helmed by a woman with a US doctorate and deep experience in human rights.

By many measures, the new Palestinian Authority in the West Bank is just what the US and others want for a future Palestinian state that could extend its rule to a post-war Gaza: a modern, technocratic group focused on solving problems.

But as a series of interviews in the administrative capital of Ramallah and elsewhere shows, the chances of success are low and the reasons many. The administration is bloated and inefficient. The economy is collapsing after Israel barred 150,000 West Bankers from entering to work and withheld tax receipts needed to pay Palestinian public employees. And Israeli settler violence is rising.


"We need someone to say to Israel: 'This is a dire situation,'" said Varsin Agabekyan, minister of state for foreign affairs.

In the West Bank alone, GDP fell by an annualised rate of 22% in the last three months of 2023, while unemployment is estimated to have more than doubled to 30%, up from 14% before the war.

Authorities forecast the Palestinian economy as a whole will continue to fall in 2024 by 5% after cratering 33% in the fourth quarter.