Construction noise is a near-constant across Israel; more high-rises join Tel Aviv’s tech boom skyline every year, and new housing is badly needed all over the country, as well as in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Since the 7 October Hamas attack that sparked a new war in the Gaza Strip, however, building work has come to an almost complete halt.
The industry relied on approximately 80,000 Palestinian workers, who are now barred from entering Israeli territory. As a result, half-finished residential blocks are everywhere, yellow tower cranes waiting motionlessly overhead. In the West Bank, poverty rates have soared.
