West Bank Palestinians risk crossing Israeli border to flee failing economy

At dawn in mid-May, Sayyed Ayyed and dozens of other unemployed Palestinian men gathered at the foot of the towering wall of concrete and barbed wire dividing the occupied West Bank from Israel.

A smuggler was there with a ladder and ropes. Each man handed over the equivalent of $100. Ayyed waited his turn as others clambered over.

The 30-year-old father of two young daughters hadn't found work for a year. Debts were mounting. Rent had to be paid. On the Israeli side, there was the lure of work on a construction site. He just had to get over the wall.

When we reach the point where you see that your children do not have food, he said, the barrier of fear is broken.

A year of war in Gaza has reverberated across the West Bank, where the World Bank warns the economy is at risk of collapse because of Israeli restrictions barring Palestinian laborers from entering the country for work, and the biggest wave of violence in decades.

Unemployment has skyrocketed, reaching 30% from around 12