West Bank Palestinian resident Ibrahim al-Qiq lost his Israeli job permit following the escalation of the crisis in Gaza leaving him in despair and debt similar to thousands of others in the occupied territory.

The Israeli war against Hamas and its continuous attacks that left over 18,000 Palestinians killed, of which 70% are women and children, may be happening in Gaza, a separate Palestinian territory, but its impact is being powerfully felt in the West Bank.

Israel terminated work permits for Palestinians from both the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza on Oct. 7, leaving many people like Qiq struggling to survive.

A 37-year-old father of three, Qiq earned around 6,000 shekels ($1,615) a month as a construction worker in Israel until he lost his work permit.

"We have spent what we earned," he told Agence France-Presse (AFP). "Our debts have piled up, and we need to buy provisions and pay the rent for our homes and the water and electricity bills."

He has been forced to borrow nearly 7,000 shekels to cover expenses.

His mountainous hometown of Kharas, near the West Bank city of Hebron, has around 12,000 inhabitants. Seventy percent of its workforce used to cross time-consuming Israeli checkpoints every day to work in Israel, according to the local municipality.

The rest are employed by the Palestinian Authority (PA), but it is struggling to pay staff amid a downturn that saw economic output fall by more than a third in the month after the war began.

Israel has terminated 130,000 work permits for West Bank Palestinians and withheld 600 million shekels ($160 million) in taxes on Palestinian goods, said Manal Qarhan, an official at the Palestinian Ministry of Economy.

She said the administration was now losing $24 million per day thanks to the loss of taxes and reduced tourism from Palestinians living in Israel.

Jewelry sold

In retaliation to Hamas's Oct. 7 attack which left some 1,200 killed according to official figures, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas, unleashing a relentless bombing campaign and ground invasion that has killed at least 18,205 people, mostly women and children.

Palestinian workers do not receive social insurance or unemployment compensation from the Israeli government, as Israeli workers do – nor is any offered by the PA.

The jobless are left to fend for themselves.

"Those whose wives had gold jewelry sold it to feed their children," said Tareq al-Hlahla, also now unemployed and struggling to support an extended family of 10.

Jamil Siaara, a former construction worker, said: "Our future is unclear. There is mental stress and no savings."

'No hope'

The impact is rippling through the local economy.

Ahmed Radwan, who owns a supermarket in Kharas, said sales were down 70% and he had stopped providing groceries on credit after customer debts reached 40% of sales.

People are buying only "basics like milk, rice, sugar and flour, and those who used to buy bread now only buy half a loaf," said Radwan.

He has laid off half of his six workers, and two more will go this month.

"There is no hope," he said.

Violence has also surged in the West Bank, where Israeli forces conduct regular raids.

The Palestinian Authority says around 270 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank since the war began.

Israel "has set up around 130 permanent and moving military checkpoints in the West Bank, which force Palestinians to travel on rough side roads that are extremely dangerous, because they expose them to settler attacks," said the Palestinian Ministry of Economy.

The checkpoints worsen the economic impact, say locals, as they complicate the transport of agricultural goods and workers.