UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday urged Israel to open all border crossing points into the Gaza Strip to prevent a collapse of the economy in the Hamas-controlled Palestinian territory.

New figures provided by the World Bank Thursday said 3,190 businesses were closed in the last month alone, leaving more than 65,000 people unemployed. Israel has closed the Karni commercial crossing, Gaza's economic lifeline, in an effort to isolate Hamas after it seized control of the Gaza Strip a month ago.

Egypt has also kept mainly shut Gaza's border crossing with the Sinai since mid-June.

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"If what is left of Gaza's economy is allowed to collapse, poverty levels already affecting two-thirds of households will rise further, and the people of Gaza will become near totally aid dependent," Ban said in a statement.

He called on Israel to open the crossings to allow humanitarian supplies, workers and commercial goods into Gaza. He said the Karni crossing should be opened for the immediate passage of commercial imports and exports, and the Rafah crossing on Gaza's border with Egypt should be opened to allow more than 4,000 stranded Palestinians to return home.

On Thursday, the World Bank said the continued closure of border crossings could bring about the coastal strip's "irreversible economic collapse."

The international lending agency delivered that stark assessment during a closed-door meeting of aid groups and private sector organizations.

Israel has allowed humanitarian aid into the territory through smaller crossings. While aid groups said this should be sufficient to head off a food shortage in the territory of 1.5 million people, they warned Gaza's economy would be devastated.

Almost all Gaza businesses depend on imported raw materials and other supplies that must pass through the strip's shuttered crossings with Israel.

"The pillars of Gaza's economy have weakened over the years. Now, with a sustained closure on this current scale, they would be at risk of virtually irreversible collapse," Faris Hadad-Zervos, the World Bank's acting country director for the West Bank and Gaza, told the aid groups.

"A solution must be reached very soon, if not immediately... Otherwise, Gaza's dependence on humanitarian assistance could become a long-term and comprehensive situation. These impacts will be difficult to reverse," Hadad-Zervos said.

Up to 54 percent of employment in Gaza is generated by the private sector, representing more than 100,000 jobs.

Hadad-Zervos said a loss of a third of those jobs would translate into unemployment levels of over 37 percent, up from 30 percent at the beginning of the year. He said unemployment could reach the unprecedented level of 44 percent.