Israel’s economy sweats under heat from war with Hamas

Israel’s output contracted sharply in the final three months of 2023, falling for the first time in nearly two years, as the war with Hamas takes a heavy toll on the economy, a media report said.

The country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) plunged 19.4 per cent on an annualised basis compared to the July-to-September quarter,



when it grew by a revised 1.8 per cent, Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics said on Monday in its initial estimate, CNN reported

The contraction is the latest piece of bad economic news for Israel, which has been waging a war in Gaza aimed at destroying the Hamas after the latter’s October 7 attack on the country, the report said.