Gaza’s digital freelancing economy is persisting through war damage, blackouts and bank restrictions by leaning on coworking spaces, alternative power and improvised ways to receive pay from abroad, a system many workers say is keeping families afloat as reconstruction elsewhere stalls.
In Gaza City, programmer Tarik Zaeem works through lines of code for a Saudi valet parking app while Israeli drones buzz overhead and ambulance sirens can be heard in the distance. He said that, when he is coding, he tries to keep his attention on the task rather than on daily survival. “When I work, I forget everything and focus on the coding. I stop thinking about my family’s basic needs,” the 44-year-old programmer said, describing his wife and three children who fled to Egypt early in the war. He added that when he is at his laptop, he shuts out “airstrikes or searching for drinking water.”
Zaeem is one of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza registered on platforms that match freelancers with overseas clients, including Freelancer.com, Upwork and Mostaql. Freelancers in Gaza have at times struggled to find food, water and shelter, lost friends and relatives, and seen homes and neighborhoods leveled by airstrikes, according to the report. Even so, some continued taking smaller or remote work assignments—designing logos, building booking tools and websites and producing other services for customers abroad—while others paused.
The freelance digital sector took shape long before the Oct. 7, 2023, Israel-Hamas war, when Gaza’s blockade reduced traditional economic sectors and high unemployment pushed digitally skilled graduates to look for income overseas. The report says connectivity also played a role, citing that more than nine out of 10 households in Gaza had internet before the war. It also describes support from foreign donors and nongovernmental groups that invested in hackathons, incubators and coding academies, including a 2018 statement from the United Nations Development Program that “freelancing and online jobs are considered to be among the best temporary solutions to the unemployment problem.”
As the war began and expanded, much of the sector’s infrastructure and support network was hit. The report says the war sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack killed some 1,200 people and resulted in the abduction of 251, and that Israel’s retaliatory offensive killed more than 72,700 people, according to local officials, while displacing most of Gaza’s population of about 2 million. Electricity and internet outages were widespread, and it said that Gaza Sky Geeks—run through Mercy Corps—lost much of its operation after two of its three coworking locations were destroyed in airstrikes, with entrepreneurs, participants and instructors killed or otherwise losing contact. Still, the group is working to rekindle the sector by supporting operations at five independent coworking spaces where digital freelancers can return.
Rand Safi, Gaza Sky Geeks’ senior program manager, said the renewed effort is driven by a desire for income without relying only on humanitarian aid. “They want the vibes, and I think they want a piece of their past,” Safi said. “There is a sense among people of not wanting to be dependent on humanitarian aid. They want an income.”
Even as some work has resumed, freelancers say their deadlines depend heavily on whether electricity and connectivity are available when they are needed. The report says more than 75% of Gaza’s telecommunications infrastructure was damaged during the war and that outages sometimes made it difficult to fulfill contracts. Sharif Naim, a software engineer, said that the initial struggle was power and internet access, but that it has eased as additional workspaces opened across Gaza.
During the war, Naim founded Taqat Gaza, a coworking space powered by solar generators, allowing remote workers to operate in three-hour shifts. Today, the report says Taqat Gaza serves more than 500 freelancers and offers a full day of internet access and networking, while also training freelancers to rebuild skills the war disrupted. “The focus (today) is creating a proper work environment, training and helping freelancers rebuild skills lost during the war so they can compete in the global market again,” he said.
For many, the economic stakes have sharpened during the conflict. Reem Alkhateeb, a mother and graphic designer, described trying to find time to work online while handling survival duties such as waiting in line for food and water. The report says prices have soared and her husband lost his job, turning her freelancing into a family’s financial lifeline. “Our dreams are no longer about luxury or big ambitions. We dream about the simplest things that should already be basic human rights: having electricity, having internet access, being able to live and work normally,” Alkhateeb said.
Getting paid remains another obstacle. The report says banks have often been inaccessible in Gaza and that popular services such as PayPal are unavailable for people with Palestinian addresses, leaving freelancers to use workarounds. Some route payments through relatives abroad, while others rely on cash brokers who accept electronic transfers for steep fees.
A few initiatives have tried to connect Gaza freelancers directly to international clients and navigate those payment hurdles. After her husband and daughter were killed in 2024, Salsabil Bardawi founded “Gaza Talents,” a platform described as connecting freelancers to international clients and helping them build careers. The report says Gaza Talents has facilitated more than $600,000 in income for workers and partners with the Bank of Palestine and a digital wallet called “PalPay.” “A lot of people can work, all they need is a laptop, internet, electricity and clients,” Bardawi said.
Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank.