While the world marks International Workers’ Day with pride and celebration, Gaza’s workers grieve amid the rubble of a war that has annihilated nearly every source of livelihood. According to the General Federation of Palestinian Trade Unions, over 95% of Gaza’s workshops and factories have been destroyed in Israel’s ongoing assault, leaving an economy in ashes and a population stripped of work, dignity, and hope.

Entire sectors—fishing, construction, carpentry, tailoring, and transportation—have been wiped out. With unemployment soaring above 80%, Gaza’s workforce now endures not only joblessness but the deep trauma of losing colleagues, homes, and entire communities. This is not just economic collapse; it is a deliberate dismantling of a people’s right to live and work.

The Federation has called for May 1st to be a day of global solidarity—not in celebration, but in protest. Gaza’s workers, who once built homes, fed families, and sustained their land, now face starvation and death. Community kitchens, fishing boats, and relief teams have been bombed. Farmers returning to their fields during ceasefires were killed—spilling their blood on the very soil they cultivated.

Israel’s war has obliterated Gaza’s economic backbone and plunged the Strip into months of darkness, hunger, and isolation. The Federation warns that recovery will take years, if it is even permitted. Machinery is gone, land is scorched, and the blockade continues to choke off the materials needed for any form of rebuilding.

Yet amid the devastation, Gaza’s workers persist—with bare hands and unbroken spirit. The Federation demands justice: trials for war criminals, enforcement of international warrants, and an end to impunity. Today, on Workers’ Day, they ask the world not for charity, but for solidarity, truth, and accountability.