A report from the World Bank warned Tuesday that the Gaza Strips economy is in "free fall," calling for urgent action by Israel and the international community to avoid "immediate collapse." The banks report will be presented to the international donor group for Palestinians, known as the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee, at its meeting in New York on Thursday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The meeting will coincide with the speeches to the assembly of both Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin. Already squeezed by the more than decade-long Israeli blockade, Gazas economy has been further weakened by US aid cuts and financial measures by Abbass Palestinian Authority. US President Donald Trumps administration has meanwhile cut more than $500 million in aid to the Palestinians, including ending all support for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. "A combination of war, isolation, and internal rivalries has left Gaza in a crippling economic state and exacerbated the human distress," said Marina Wes, the World Banks director for the region. Wes said the increasingly dire economic situation in Gaza "has reached a critical point." "Increased frustration is feeding into the increased tensions which have already started spilling over into unrest and set back the human development of the regions large youth population," she added. Gazans have staged near-weekly demonstrations along the border with Israel since late March, in part to protest the blockade enforced by Israel since 2007, when Hamas seized the territory. Hamas has led and organized the protests, but turnout has also been driven by growing despair over blockade-linked hardship, including lengthy power cuts and soaring unemployment. At least 187 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the protests began on March 30. One Israeli soldier has been killed in that time. Israel says its actions are necessary to defend the border and accuses Hamas of using the protests as cover to attempt infiltrations and attacks. Palestinians and human rights groups say protesters have been shot while posing no real threat. "The economic deterioration in both Gaza and West Bank can no longer be counteracted by foreign aid, which has been in steady decline, nor by the private sector, which remains confined by restrictions on movement, access to primary materials and trade," the bank said. Gazas economy shrunk by six percent in the first quarter of 2018 "with indications of further deterioration since then," it said. The bank said one in two Gazans now lives below the poverty line and that unemployment is running at 53 percent. More than 70 percent of young people are jobless, it said. On September 20, UN envoy for the Middle East peace process Nickolay Mladenov told the UN Security Council that "Gaza can explode any minute." Mladenov and Egyptian officials have been seeking to broker a long-term truce between Israel and Hamas, but those efforts have stalled in recent weeks. Gazas economic situation is likely to deteriorate further because of the failed attempts to negotiate an easing of the blockade. Hamas leaders said this week that Egypt-mediated efforts to broker a long-term cease-fire with Israel have stalled. Repeated attempts to broker a reconciliation deal between rival Palestinian factions have also failed. In the report, the World Bank calls upon Israel to lift restrictions on trade and movement of goods and people to help improve Gazas economy, and urges development of "legitimate institutions to govern Gaza in a transparent and efficient manner."