Getting Gaza back online

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0:43Where journeys break new ground and connections unlock opportunities. Where innovation can spark real change and our actions can push our world forward. Singapore, where business events can create lasting impact. Hello, I'm Yolande Nell. Thank you for listening to Crossing Continents. I'm a Middle East correspondent based in Jerusalem, and before Hamas' 7th October attack on Israel in 2023 and the subsequent war, I used to visit Gaza frequently. Over the years, I'd watched projects encouraging tech startups gathering pace. They gave young Palestinians a chance to develop digital skills and find jobs.

1:32Nowadays, I can't get into Gaza. There are restrictions on foreign journalists. But I've stayed across efforts to get Gaza's unlikely tech sector up and running again in very trying circumstances. That's what this edition of Crossing Continents is about.

1:55When I evacuated once again from the south to the middle of Gaza, and my family told me, we will live in a tent, we don't have a place. So I said, like, it's impossible. How can I live in a tent? We are seven members, and how can we live in a small tent? You feel like you live in a street, not in a tent, because all the voices around you. But if you stop or if you cry about your situation, you will not do anything, and the world will not stop about you or about Gaza.

2:30Walat Valides is 24 years old. She's a computer software engineer in Gaza and her family's main breadwinner. My life before the war, I have internet 24 hours. I have electricity 24 hours. But when the war started, I lost the internet and the connection because the displacement from the north to the south and then to other places, it's similar to animal lives, really. You have to find water. You have to find the food. There's no food. There's a famine. Sometimes I got bad news, like your uncle dead, your relative dead. So the only thing for me, like, to get my laptop and just start turning.

3:16In this week's Crossing Continents, I've been speaking through video calls to talented young tech geeks in the Gaza Strip, like Walah, trying to earn a living with their laptops. What Israel has done, because in the past, what we learned from our mistakes is that there were posts along here. So this is it. A really incredible view across the Gaza Strip from here, this hilltop in southern Israel. This is where Israeli tour groups come to look at the destruction that's been caused by the war. I used to work in Gaza regularly, but since the war began nearly three years ago, Israel hasn't allowed foreign journalists to enter.

3:57I'm just a couple of hundred meters away from the border fence and everything on the other side in Beit Hanun in the north has been flattened. In the distance you can still make out the high-rise buildings in Gaza City that remain, although we know a lot of those have been badly damaged. And given this scene it just seems all the more unlikely and incredible that those young people I've been speaking to in Gaza are continuing to develop apps and websites. They're continuing coding, trying to make their way in the digital economy and connect to the outside world despite everything that's happened.

4:38What I can work here in Gaza, anything that is in the freelancing work, starting from mobile application for iPhone, Android, Flutter, to websites, to even ads, anything that can be worked, like without a border, we can do it. So anything that can be worked from remotely, we can do it here in Gaza. Mahran Bayed is also living in a tent close to his destroyed home near a Shifa hospital in Gaza City, once Gaza's biggest medical complex. He worked as a software engineer for more than a decade before the war. I lost all my equipment, I lost my house, I lost my office, and I was thinking that is the end of the world here in Gaza.

5:23Mahram has three young children, the youngest born under bombardment. The nearby hospital saw some of the heaviest fighting of the war, with Israel accusing Hamas of using it as a command centre, which the group denied, and launching several sieges and raids there. I got a baby born in the start of this war. I cannot move from the hospital because we need like milk. We need medical care. So we need to be in hospital. So I didn't move to the other part of Gaza because of this. I faced a lot of hard time. I don't like to remember them actually, but we survived. We didn't like get anyone killed in our family, but they destroyed our neighborhood, our home.

6:09We don't have home right now, so we are in tents. Myself, I cannot believe that this was happening with us and we still survive. In the end, Mahran did have to move his family several times. But since last October's ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which halted the full-scale war, they've returned to their old neighbourhood. The Israeli authorities won't allow foreign journalists to enter Gaza independently without being embedded with the military. so he asked Mahran to make his own recordings of his day.

6:45You may hear a noisy sound and this is the generator of our neighbourhood and that's a sign we have electricity today, so it's a good sign. In search of more stable electricity and internet, Mahran regularly visits one of the co-working spaces that are popping up around Gaza. he's become one of thousands of digital freelancers. It's interesting to think that from Gaza I can collaborate with teams completely different in the world and contribute with people I have never met. That's one of the things I enjoy most about technology. Thanks to that vital connection, I can reach him in the co-working space with a video call.

7:28What do you tell clients? Do you tell them that you're based in Gaza, that there are going to be some limits or some difficult circumstances. Yes. This is one of the hardest situations that I need to face at the work because a lot of people, once they hear that we are from Gaza, they stop talking with us and stop relying on the work. So it's hard. I don't like to lie, actually. I always tell them at the first of the conversation, please be aware that I am in Gaza and I may have disconnected. I would love to work with you, but you need to know that. My situation is hard. I will do my best to do you the job, but you need to take in your consideration that I may get like a blackout in some times, but I will try to find a location to work.

8:19And that person needs to decide. And sometimes they understand the situation. They know that you will get us the proper work, so they continue the work with us. and

8:32one second I can't hear you by the way We've lost him again Let's hope he unfreezes We lost you again, Mahran Proving his point, the connection dropped out a number of times during our conversation There are facts that prospective employers have to bear in mind, he says We don't know how we are still alive till now and we are not thinking about this We are just thanking God that we are still alive and we are living day by day. We don't think about tomorrow because we may be killed. You need to understand that's here in Gaza. So once we get a job for IT that need like three to four months, we are trying to say to this customer, please know that everything will be online.

9:17If we got killed, you will have your work. That's a shocking thing to say. But it's a normal here. It's like a normal here in Gaza.

9:44Tariq uses another co-working hub in Gaza City. The local firm he used to work for shut down after Hamas carried out its deadly assault and mass hostage-taking in southern Israel in October 2023, triggering the devastating war. He's had to rebuild his life. I work for a company that's making applications, mobile applications. So we're making applications for, as an example, a paper shop that you can go and take an appointment here in Gaza. Another client from Saudi Arabia, he has a parking valet, So when making application for him, he received the car and took all the information and put it in the mobile.

10:31And when the user comes out asking for his car, he's just showing a QR code. The application read the QR code and know all information about the car and where it's at and the value will get faster. This is some of our last job. So when you do work like that, I mean, it must feel like you're dealing with people that live in another world, you know, valet parking. Absolutely. When I'm working on my laptop, I forget everything. I forget what's happened. I separate my life from the job. So I focus 100 % for that to I can live. Wow, it's not easy. You must be one of the more experienced people doing your work.

11:21I mean, do you find yourself mentoring others or did you have to update your own skills with the start of the war? In three years, the AI is highly recommended now. So before the war, there was no AI. So I must every day learn something new. If it's still on your aerial knowledge, you will be left behind. So you must learn everything every day. You're updating your knowledge every day. Now my team is working with the AI to accelerate our work. But getting paid remains a challenge, with limited bank branches open in Gaza and severe shortages of cash. Palestinians face many international banking restrictions and those in Gaza can't register with most digital payment platforms.

12:11Some manage to get their money sent on via relatives abroad, but others rely on cash brokers who accept electronic transfers for high fees. This is something else. We can't receive the direct money because they don't have a contract, we don't have everything. And in the first of the war, every money we received here, we lost half because of the transfer fees. So you get half of your earnings? Yes. It's not enough for a good living. The basic. Despite last year's US-brokered ceasefire, there's still a threat from the skies with near-daily Israeli strikes.

13:01Before two days, they attacked a car in front of us. It's 100 metres between the car and the course base I'm working on it. So this was a horrifying moment. Yeah, so as well as dealing with the destruction around you, we have to remember there are still ongoing bombardments, daily dangers and threats. Yeah, it's still daily. Still daily. On that occasion, the Israeli military says it was targeting a Hamas military operative. A student finishing her high school exams was killed. The IDF says it tries to avoid harm to civilians. Despite everything, Tarek considers himself somewhat fortunate. Just before the war, he was saving up to buy a car and was able to use that money instead to get his wife and three children out to Egypt.

13:58With his own apartment destroyed, he now lives on the roof of his sister's damaged home. And with borders virtually closed, he's unable to leave Gaza to join his family. My routine, go to the work, back, call them on net, talking with them for an hour and sleep and repeat. Living the same day for three years, it's a hell. Imagine you're separate with your wife and your children for three years now. You can't hug him, they can't sit with him, you can't talk with them. And now when I speak with my wife, I speak with my wife for an hour, two hours. hours, but when I speak to my children, they have one minute, two minutes, and goodbye.

14:42We hear said, away from eye, away from heart. I hope that come the day I see him soon. Inshallah.

14:55Pop quiz. What's in your kids' lunchbox? At Whole Foods Market, they've already done the studying. Over 300 food ingredients are banned from their shelves. No hydronated fats in the peanut butter. and no high fructose corn syrup in the cookies. And for sandwiches, there are no synthetic nitrates or nitrites in any of their deli meat. So you can pack lunch boxes with peace of mind. Get back to school ready at Whole Foods Market.

15:30Hey, guys. Is this the class of Spine Geeks, okay? Hi. Hi. You must be? Hi. So I've come over to Ramallah. It's always a bit of a struggle nowadays with the Israeli checkpoints with heavy traffic. And of course, I'm in the occupied West Bank. I'm not in the Gaza Strip. But after the war started in Gaza, a lot of operations for Gaza Sky Geeks were transferred here to this smart, modern office. People sitting here with pictures of Gaza up on the walls. Gaza Sky Geeks was co-founded 15 years ago by Google and a US non-governmental organization, Mercy Corps. The initial idea was to help fund tech startups in impoverished, Hamas-run Gaza.

16:18I visited them several times before the war. Nicole Hark is Mercy Corps' country director. I think a lot of the challenge at the time was really trying to think about what are the economic opportunities that are actually realistic for Palestinians in Gaza, given all of the different constraints, whether that's political, economic access and simply just getting in and out. There's not really a viable, strong export market. In 2007, a year after winning the last Palestinian general election, Hamas, which is widely defined as a terrorist group, took over Gaza by force, ousting the Palestinian Authority.

16:57Israel and Egypt responded by tightening their blockade of the tiny territory. unemployment skyrocketed. So we came together with Google and started thinking about startups and tech and really focusing on the young people inside Gaza, a really talented cohort, really well-educated group of individuals, but just, you know, sort of struggling to find a way to access international markets. During the war, Gaza Sky Geeks saw two of its three bustling hubs in the Strip destroyed. Some of its entrepreneurs, participants and staff left. Others were killed. Now it's trying to help resurrect the tech sector, focusing on training, freelance work and the new independent co-working spaces.

17:43Yeah, it's really critical. I mean, we talk about it now as sort of a digital lifeline, right? This idea that if you have a laptop, if you have a working internet connection, you can work and earn income. And at a time when close to 80 % of the people living in Gaza have no income whatsoever, it's really critical to help people get back to work. They don't want to be dependent on aid. They're not looking to sit there and do nothing, right? But it's really finding a safe space and finding something that's affordable and that continues to have consistent electricity and the internet is shockingly incredibly difficult.

18:15And so really it started quite nascent, these buildings and these businesses, but now we're seeing more and more pop up because the demand is there. And it's not just businesses and individuals, but also students that are taking their exams there or connecting for online programs. They serve a multitude of community needs and it's really quite vital at the moment. And then what are you doing now to support those co-working spaces and the people in Gaza who want to get back to work? So for the co-working spaces in particular, it really depends on the space and their needs. For a lot of them, it's electricity or it's higher internet capacity.

18:50So we might be providing solar panels or backup batteries so that they can then better store the power that they have. or we're helping them to identify the tools and additional funding in order to be able to increase their internet bandwidth so they can have video editors or they can have more live streaming. Some of those things that just take a lot of internet. Most of the spaces that we speak to are trying to extend their hours. So they want to be able to operate later in the evening, for example, because a lot of the individuals are working in the United States, for example, or they're coming in earlier because of Australia.

19:23So they're trying to manage how long they can stay open. But in order to do that, you have to have power, which unfortunately is not very easy to get in Gaza. And where do you see this going? I mean, has this got real potential? We talk in abstract terms about the reconstruction of Gaza, but could this ultimately help Gaza to rebuild? I think it's definitely the first place to start. I mean, however, Gaza recovers from this, and it will take a lot of time and a lot of investment, but the digital economy will be one of the fastest and first ways to do it. We're already seeing people earning an income online.

19:58And we know that even if there's huge progress made under whatever the Board of Peace or whatever the peace plans look like, there will still take a lot of time before Gaza is recovered enough to export anything else. There's so much need just internally, domestically to address. So really the tech sector is what gives them that opportunity to move beyond this, to go beyond borders and to really find a way to earn an income and bring it back home.

20:29Please come in, Mohamed Halawa says to a woman. You're welcome. He runs a co-working space in Gaza City, which is being helped by Gaza Sky Geeks, for example, to buy some solar panels. As he explains, his original co-working space was destroyed during the war and he's now set up a new one in his damaged home Typically, he says, 60 to 80 people come each day and pay to use the internet

21:02The place here receives different types of people We get entrepreneurs, they make about 10 to 15 % of our visitors The majority are freelancers, programmers and architectural designers. They make up about 60 % of the capacity of the co-working space. Usually, about 20 % are students. Though right now, students are about the majority because of high school exams. We give them free internet and power.

21:32There's a school nearby, and mothers drop their kids off to school, then come to our hub for three hours to use the internet until their kids are out, rather than walk a long way home. They come here for some rest, plus they don't have fast internet at home, so they come to us to download entertainment material, not necessarily work material. And some families have their children abroad. They come to our hub to make video calls, particularly in the evenings, because they don't have stable internet at home. So let's start with AI engineering. because I got these two questions from an engineer and actually I stuck.

22:12This morning, Indira Bala, in the centre of Gaza, Wala is discussing an AI engineering problem with one of her mentors, based in California's Silicon Valley. That really expands my network. I have lots of international mentors who not just help me in the technical skills, also in the soft skills, also in the mental health. My mental health, it's not in zero, it's in minus. Sometimes I'm crying while working, so I don't stop anything. Crying, working at the same time, but I have to complete. Two of her sisters were injured in the war, and amid everything else, she's trying to get a medical evacuation for the youngest.

22:55She got injured when we was in our home. Her leg actually, and her leg become larger and larger. And she's 13 years old and none of the doctors here could help her because, you know, there's no resources here. So we talked to the World Health Organization and right now we are waiting for a country to host her case. So we are still waiting and her status like become harder and harder and bad. So right now there is no luck, but I'm still like trying to find a way. What's happened to the other people that you were studying IT with at university? Are people able to work like you or have you followed up with what's happened to them?

23:36Yeah, I know like friends already passed away. Also another friends still trying to find a work and also friends like lose the hope from this life. So yeah, if you want to complete despite all of these struggles and circumstances or do We want to just wait for a miracle to happen or wait for something to happen. And absolutely, it will not happen if you don't do anything. Wala has been helped by another Palestinian-Dutch NGO called TAP, which connects young Palestinians with mentors, career coaches and possible employers. She uses the same co-working space as TAP's local team leader, Manar Anabaheen, who tells me there's huge talent in Gaza.

24:22To be honest, it's surprising me that people outside, they think that in Gaza, people are not, you know, that well-educated. They don't have access to this high-tech industry. But the reality is quite the opposite. Even before, like since 2014, 2015, people started to shift toward those careers. I'm speaking here about the high-tech roles like product management, senior software engineers. And now currently, despite the situation here, people as well, they are increasing their knowledge in AI. So many of our participants who are currently here inside Gaza, they are applying to jobs mainly on AI, like AI agent, AI software engineer.

24:59So here in Gaza, people, they have the knowledge, but all they need is the chance, having the right chance, having the right network, having the right opportunity in order to show themselves to the world. This is something that remote working has really sort of made possible. I can see why people's attachment to their laptops was like a kind of window, a portal, to still kind of connect to the rest of the world. Exactly, 100%.

25:27We're back with Mahran in Gaza City. He's trying to get his laptop screen repaired and is visiting a makeshift workshop run by Ayyad Shamali, who's well known to the local tech geeks. There are shelves neatly stacked with second-hand computer parts, but the desk is a jumble of cables, tools and pots of screws. With Israel controlling the borders and what can come in and out of Gaza, it's very much a question of making do, of recycling whatever he can.