‘Digital lifeline’ – Gaza tech workers give glimpse of possible future

Amid the rubble of Gaza, the majority of the two million population is reliant on humanitarian aid to survive and there are few ways for people to earn a decent salary. The UN says the unemployment rate has passed 80%, compared to 22% before the war. Humanitarian groups see online work – particularly freelancing for clients abroad – as offering some of the best opportunities.

“We talk about it now as a sort of digital lifeline, this idea that if you have a laptop, if you have a working internet connection, you can work and have an income,” says Nicole Hark, from the US humanitarian organisation, Mercy Corps. “It’s really critical to help people go back to work. They don’t want to be dependent on aid.”

Before the latest devastating war, triggered by the deadly Hamas-led attacks on Israel in October 2023, Gaza had a burgeoning tech sector. Israel and Egypt kept the Hamas-run territory under blockade, citing security reasons. Coding, designing and programming remotely were a way for young graduates to overcome tight border restrictions.

Gaza Sky Geeks was founded in 2012 by Google and Mercy Corps. The initial idea was to promote tech start-ups, but its three bustling hubs also ran coding courses and gave advice on accessing international markets. Two were destroyed during the war.

Mercy Corps now supports some of the new co-working spaces which have popped up across Gaza using generators and solar panels to offer better internet connections and a more stable power supply. Gaza’s power system has suffered near-total collapse and approximately 75% of its telecommunications networks have been damaged or destroyed.