Getting Gaza back online

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Getting Gaza Back Online"

The Documentary Podcast – BBC World Service
Date: August 4, 2026
Host: Yolande Nell

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Overview

This episode of The Documentary Podcast explores the resilient and resourceful tech community in Gaza, focusing on how young software engineers and freelancers are striving to maintain digital connectivity and livelihoods amid the aftermath of war, ongoing displacement, and infrastructural devastation. Through first-hand accounts, the episode highlights personal hardships, the digital economy’s role in survival, and the innovative ecosystems supporting Gaza’s tech talent against significant odds.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Living and Working Amidst War (01:01–05:13)

• Personal Stories of Displacement

  • Wala (01:01): A 24-year-old software engineer, describes the repeated evacuation of her family and the shock of adapting to life in a tent with seven family members:

    "You feel like you live in street, not in a tent...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." (01:27)

  • Before the war, daily life included 24/7 electricity and internet—now, survival is basic: searching for water, food, and enduring loss.
  • Mahran Bayad (03:37): Software engineer, lost his home, office, and equipment.

    “I lost all of my equipment, I lost my house, I lost my office. And I was thinking that is the end of the world.” (04:07)

  • His youngest child was born in a hospital under bombardment.

• Physical and Emotional Toll

  • Multiple displacements, living in tents, and ongoing trauma.
  • Persistent danger: "We didn't like get anyone killed in our family, but they destroy our neighborhood, our home. We don't have home right now." (04:36)

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2. Tech Work as a Lifeline (05:41–12:11)

• Freelancing and Remote Work

  • Mahran Bayad: Despite all setbacks, continues freelancing—from app development to website creation—with teams worldwide.

    “It’s interesting to think that from Gaza I can collaborate with teams completely different in the world...” (06:06)

  • Unstable electricity and internet are daily hurdles, often solved by working from co working spaces powered by generators and shared resources.
  • Honest with clients about risks:

    “Please be aware that I am in Gaza and I may have disconnected. I may get like a blackout in some times, but I will try to find a location to work...” (06:33)

• Payment Barriers

  • Severe restrictions on banking and transfers—reliance on costly intermediaries or relatives abroad.
  • Tarek Zaim (11:02): Describes receiving only half of his earnings after transfer fees:

    “Every money we received here, we lost the half because of the transfer fees.” (11:02)

• Social and Psychological Impact

  • Regular exposure to continued violence, separations from family, and emotional toll.
  • Tarek Zaim (12:49): Describes being separated from his wife and children for three years:

    “Living the same day for three years. It’s a hell. Imagine you separate with your wife and your children for three years now...” (12:49)

  • Uses technology to momentarily escape the harsh reality:

    “When I work in my laptop, I forget everything. I forget what’s happened. I separate my life from the job.” (09:38)

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3. Support Networks and Tech Ecosystem (15:00–18:50)

• Gaza Sky Geeks and Mercy Corps

  • Nicole Haque (Mercy Corps) (15:47): Explains the foundation of Gaza Sky Geeks (GSG) to boost tech startups and now, post-war, shifting to co working support and digital freelancing.

    “It's really critical. I mean, we talk about it now as sort of a, a digital lifeline, right?” (17:06)

  • GSG’s tech hubs in Gaza were largely destroyed during the war.
  • Mercy Corps is helping by providing solar panels, backup batteries, and support for internet capacity, enabling digital work despite infrastructural collapse.

• Potential for Gaza's Reconstruction

  • The digital economy is viewed as the fastest, first step in post-war recovery:

    "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..." (18:50)

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4. Community Stories: Access, Repair, and Talent (19:37–24:07)

• Co working Spaces' Role

  • Muhammad Halawah (20:11): Manages a co working hub in his damaged home: daily visitors include freelancers, students, and families seeking internet and video call access.
  • Students, because of school proximity, now outnumber tech workers temporarily.

• NGO Networks and Mentorship

  • Wala (21:33): Mentored by international professionals, drawing much-needed emotional support and career guidance.

    “My mental health, it’s not in zero, it’s in minus. Yeah, sometimes I’m crying while working so I don’t stop anything. Crying working at the same time. But I have to complete.” (21:33)

  • TAP NGO Representative (23:30): Emphasizes Gaza’s hidden tech talent and the need for opportunities rather than aid.

    “To be honest, it’s surprising me that people outside...think that in Gaza people are not, you know, that well educated...But the reality is quite the opposite.” (23:30)

• Laptop Repairs and Import Restrictions

  • Ayed Shamili (Tech Repair Specialist) (24:57): Describes salvaging and recycling destroyed computer parts due to Israeli restrictions:

    “Now, most of the problems we see are with devices that have been pulled out from under the rubble...The owner of this laptop was also killed. May God have mercy on her.” (24:57)

  • Laptops, solar panels, and fuel are all at a premium, with prices soaring tenfold post-war.

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5. Hope, Persistence, and the Future (27:01–28:37)

• Mahran Bayad: Despite repeated loss, clings to faith and perseverance:

  "I’m one of the 2 million here in Gaza and I think there is a lot of people that have a harder time than me...So it's hard. And I think my test, thanks to God is still like in money and work and this is something that we can work about it...We are trying to survive." (27:04)

• Wala’s Progress

  • Recently secured a remote job with a Dubai-based company:

    “My first job to help my family, to get a good life, to help my sister to get out from Gaza to find the treatment and also I’m working for myself to get my scholarship, to travel and also to help my people.” (28:06)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Wala (on perseverance):

  “If you want to complete despite all of these struggles and circumstances or do you want to just like wait for a miracle to happen or wait for something to happen and absolutely it will not happen if you don't do anything.” (22:44)

• Nicole Haque (on digital entrepreneurship):

  “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.” (17:06)

• Ayed Shamili (on salvage and loss):

  “This laptop here has a piece of shrapnel that entered one end of the device to the other to the screen, shattering it. The owner...was also killed. May God have mercy on her.” (24:57)

• Tarek Zaim (on the cost of war):

  “Living the same day for three years. It’s a hell. Imagine you 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.” (12:49)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 01:01 – Wala describes displacement and home loss.
• 03:37 – Mahran Bayad on freelancing in war-torn Gaza.
• 06:33 – Challenges disclosing Gaza location to clients.
• 09:38 – Coping with psychological toll through work.
• 11:02 – Tarek Zaim on payment barriers and high fees.
• 12:49 – Family separation and daily routine under siege.
• 15:47 – Nicole Haque explains Gaza Sky Geeks and digital lifeline.
• 18:50 – The digital economy as a foundation for reconstruction.
• 20:11 – Community and daily life in a Gaza co working space.
• 21:33 – Wala on mentorship and mental health.
• 23:30 – TAP NGO on hidden talent and need for opportunity.
• 24:57 – Ayed Shamili on tech repair amid shortages.
• 27:01 – Mahran Bayad reflects on loss and survival.
• 28:06 – Wala secures remote employment; outlines her hopes.

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Conclusion

Despite unimaginable adversity, Gaza’s young tech workers persist—supported by local ingenuity, global mentors, and institutional bridges like Gaza Sky Geeks. Their stories, as told in this episode, are a powerful testament to human resilience, technological hope, and the digital economy’s power to transcend even the most formidable blockades.

Transcript

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[Wala (Software Engineer in Gaza)]

When 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 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.

[Yolande Nell (BBC Reporter)]

Wala valides is 24 years old. She's a computer software engineer in Gaza and her family's main breadwinner.

[Wala (Software Engineer in Gaza)]

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 another 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 go to bad news like your uncle dead, your relative dead. So the only thing for me to get my laptop and just start running.

[Yolande Nell (BBC Reporter)]

Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Survey.

[BBC Correspondent]

Hello service.

[Yolande Nell (BBC Reporter)]

I'm Yolande Nell and in this week's assignment I've been speaking through video calls to talented young tech geeks in the Gaza Strip, like Wallet trying to earn a living with their laptops.

[Mahran Bayad (Software Engineer in Gaza)]

What Israel has done because in the past, what we learned from our mistakes is that there were posts along here, observations.

[BBC Correspondent]

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'm just a couple of hundred meters away from the border fence and everything on the other side in Bethanun 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.

[Mahran Bayad (Software Engineer in Gaza)]

What 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. So anything that can be worked from remotely, we can do it here in Gaza.

[Yolande Nell (BBC Reporter)]

Mahran Bayad 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.

[Mahran Bayad (Software Engineer in Gaza)]

I lost all of my equipment, I lost my house, I lost my office. And I was thinking that is the end of the world. Here in Gaza.

[Yolande Nell (BBC Reporter)]

Mahran 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 center, which the group denied, and launching several sieges and raids there.

[Mahran Bayad (Software Engineer in Gaza)]

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 destroy our neighborhood, our home. We don't have home right now, so we are intense. I myself, I cannot believe that this happened with us and we still survive.

[Yolande Nell (BBC Reporter)]

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 neighborhood. 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.

[Mahran Bayad (Software Engineer in Gaza)]

You may hear a noisy sound and this is the generator of our neighborhood and that's a sign we have electricity today, so it's a good sign.

[Yolande Nell (BBC Reporter)]

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.

[Mahran Bayad (Software Engineer in Gaza)]

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.

[BBC Correspondent]

Thanks to that vital connection, I can

[Yolande Nell (BBC Reporter)]

reach him in the co working space with a video call.

[BBC Correspondent]

What 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?

[Mahran Bayad (Software Engineer in Gaza)]

Yes. This is one of the hardest situation 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 war. I always tell them at the first of the conversation, please be aware that I am in Gaza and I may have disconnected. I may get like a blackout in some times, but I will try to find allocation to work and that person needs to decide and sometimes they understand the situation. They know that you will get us the blue bar work. So they continue the work with us and. One second, I can't hear you.

[BBC Correspondent]

By the way, we've lost him again. Let's hope he unfreezes. We lost you again.

[Yolande Nell (BBC Reporter)]

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.

[Mahran Bayad (Software Engineer in Gaza)]

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 this 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. If we got killed, you will have your work.

[BBC Correspondent]

That's a shocking thing to say, but

[Mahran Bayad (Software Engineer in Gaza)]

it's a normal here. It's like a normal here in Gaza.

[Tarek Zaim (Freelancer in Gaza)]

My name is Tarek Zaim. I am working as a freelancer in ITech. As a programmer.

[Yolande Nell (BBC Reporter)]

Tarek 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.

[Tarek Zaim (Freelancer in Gaza)]

I work for a company that's making application mobile applications. So we making application for as examiner a barbershop that you can go and take appointments here in Gaza. Another client from Saudi Arabia, he has a parking valet so we making application for him. He received the car and take all information and put in the mobile and when the user come out asking for his car, he just showing a QR code. The application read a 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.

[BBC Correspondent]

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?

[Tarek Zaim (Freelancer in Gaza)]

Absolutely. When I work in my laptop, I forget everything. I forget what's happened. I separate my life from the job. So I focus 100 or that to I can live well.

[BBC Correspondent]

It's not. It's not easy. You must be one of the more experienced people doing your work. I mean, do you find yourself mentoring others or did you have to update your own skills? With the start of the war in

[Tarek Zaim (Freelancer in Gaza)]

three years, the AI is highly recommended now. So before the war, no AI. So I must every day learn something new. If still on your aerial knowledge, you will be left behind. So you must learning everything every daily you updating your knowledge every day. Now my team is working with the AI to accelerate our work.

[Yolande Nell (BBC Reporter)]

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. Some manage to get their money sent on via relatives abroad, but others rely on cash brokers who accept electronic transfers for high fees.

[Tarek Zaim (Freelancer in Gaza)]

This something 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 the half because of the transfer fees.

[BBC Correspondent]

So you get half of your earnings?

[Tarek Zaim (Freelancer in Gaza)]

Yes. It's not enough for a good living.

[Yolande Nell (BBC Reporter)]

The basic despite last year's US brokered ceasefire, there's still a threat from the skies with near daily Israeli strikes.

[Tarek Zaim (Freelancer in Gaza)]

Before two days, they attacked a car in front of us. 100 meter between the car and the coast base. I work on it. So this was a horrifying moment.

[BBC Correspondent]

Yeah. So as well as dealing with the destruction around you, we have to remember there is still ongoing bombardments, daily dangers and threats.

[Tarek Zaim (Freelancer in Gaza)]

Yeah, it's still daily. Still daily.

[Yolande Nell (BBC Reporter)]

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, Tariq 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 with 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.

[Tarek Zaim (Freelancer in Gaza)]

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 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. But when I speak my children, one minute, two minutes and goodbye. We here said away from eye, away from heart. I hope that come the day I see him soon. Inshallah.

[Yolande Nell (BBC Reporter)]

You're listening to the documentary from the BBC World Service

[TAP NGO Representative]

with VRBoCare, help is

[Nicole Haque (Mercy Corps Country Director)]

always ready before, during and after your stay.

[TAP NGO Representative]

We've planned for the plot twists so support is always available because a great

[Nicole Haque (Mercy Corps Country Director)]

trip starts with peace of mind.

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[Yolande Nell (BBC Reporter)]

I'm Yoland Nell and this is Assignment.

[BBC Correspondent]

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

[Yolande Nell (BBC Reporter)]

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. I visited them several times before the war. Nicole Haque is Mercy Corps Country Director.

[Nicole Haque (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.

[Yolande Nell (BBC Reporter)]

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. Israel and Egypt responded by tightening their blockade of the tiny territory. Unemployment skyrocketed.

[Nicole Haque (Mercy Corps Country Director)]

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 sort of struggling to find a way to access international markets.

[Yolande Nell (BBC Reporter)]

During the war, Gaza SkyGeeks 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.

[Nicole Haque (Mercy Corps Country Director)]

Yeah, it's really critical. I mean, we talk about it now as sort of a, 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 Internet is shockingly, incredibly difficult. And 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.

[BBC Correspondent]

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?

[Nicole Haque (Mercy Corps Country Director)]

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. So 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. 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. So 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.

[BBC Correspondent]

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

[Yolande Nell (BBC Reporter)]

help Gaza to rebuild?

[Nicole Haque (Mercy Corps Country Director)]

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 and 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.

[Yolande Nell (BBC Reporter)]

Please come in. Muhammad Halawah 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.

[Muhammad Halawah (Co-working Space Manager)]

The face 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. There'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.

[Wala (Software Engineer in Gaza)]

So let's start with AI engineering, because I got these two questions from an engineer and actually I stuck this morning

[Yolande Nell (BBC Reporter)]

in Dirabala in the center of Gaza. Wala is Discussing an AI engineering problem with one of her mentors based in California's Silicon Valley that really expand my network.

[Wala (Software Engineer in Gaza)]

I have like 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. Yeah, sometimes I'm crying while working so I don't stop anything. Crying working at the same time. But I have to complete.

[Yolande Nell (BBC Reporter)]

Two of her sisters were injured in the war and amid everything else she's trying to get a medical evacuation for the youngest.

[Wala (Software Engineer in Gaza)]

She 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 become harder and harder and bad. So right now there is no luck. But I'm still like trying to find a way.

[BBC Correspondent]

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?

[Wala (Software Engineer in Gaza)]

Yeah, 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 you want to just like wait for a miracle to happen or wait for something to happen and absolutely it will not happen if you don't do anything.

[Yolande Nell (BBC Reporter)]

Walaat 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.

[TAP NGO Representative]

To be honest, it's surprising me that people outside, they think that in Gaza people are not, you know, that well educated. They, they don't have access to this high tech industry. But the reality is quite the opposite. And now currently, despite the situation here, people as well, they are increasing their knowledge in AI. So so many of our participants who are currently here inside the Gaza, they are applying to jobs mainly on AI, like AI agent, AI software engineer. So 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.

[BBC Correspondent]

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.

[TAP NGO Representative]

Exactly 100%.

[Yolande Nell (BBC Reporter)]

We're back with Mahran in Gaza City. He's trying to get his laptop screen repaired and is visiting a makeshift workshop run by Ayed Shamili, 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.

[Ayed Shamili (Tech Repair Specialist)]

Now, most of the problems we see are with devices that have been pulled out from under the rubble, recovered from beneath the debris as a result of the bombing, as well as damage caused by electricity issue due to the irregular power supply. For example, this laptop here has a piece of shrapnel that entered one end of the device to the other to the screen, shattering it. The owner of this laptop was also killed. May God have mercy on her.

[Yolande Nell (BBC Reporter)]

The Israeli authorities see computers as dual use, meaning that they could be used for military as well as civilian purposes. So they ban them from entering Gaza. There are also restrictions on solar panels, generators and fuel. So electricity and laptops in Gaza can now cost 10 times what they did before the war. And actually fixing a laptop, well,

[Ayed Shamili (Tech Repair Specialist)]

getting spare parts from outside is now almost impossible. Today, repairing relies entirely on devices already inside the country. If one laptop has a faulty motherboard, we take its screen casing and other usable ports. If another laptop has a broken screen, we use its motherboard. That is how repairs are done now, transferring parts from one device to another.

[Yolande Nell (BBC Reporter)]

Mahran leaves disappointed, picking his way through the market.

[Mahran Bayad (Software Engineer in Gaza)]

Why I need to work on a broken Mac device and I cannot have a new device. We need electricity, we need water. Electricity is the main part of our life. We cannot drink water without electricity. We need solar panels, we need car batteries because we use the batteries to stand with solar panels. We need fuel for generators, we need oils. So it's very hard for us. And I hope in the future we have the same Internet connection that Elon Musk has here in Gaza. And I hope that we have a way to get devices to work on here in Gaza.

[Yolande Nell (BBC Reporter)]

Mahran's still looking for a full time job.

[Mahran Bayad (Software Engineer in Gaza)]

I'm one of the 2 million here in Gaza and I think there is a lot of people that have a harder time than me. I lost my job, I lost my equipment. I lost my home. This is God test to me. Other people, they lost their whole family, they lost a lot of people. So it's hard. And I think my test, thanks to God is still like in money and work and this is something that we can work about it. This test is very hard for us, but we are trying to survive. We are trying to say thanks God for what we can do and we start our life again.

[Yolande Nell (BBC Reporter)]

There are many obstacles, obstacles. And with the ceasefire stalling, Gaza's wider recovery remains at a standstill. But still Gazan tech workers give a glimpse of a brighter possible future. As for Wolla, she is now earning money with her laptop. She's recently landed a full time job as a software engineer with a Dubai based company.

[Wala (Software Engineer in Gaza)]

My first job to, to help my family, to get a good life, to help my sister to get out from Gaza to find the treatment and also I'm working for myself to get my scholarship, to travel and also to help my people. So yeah, this is right now my main goal. I'm still working on it and I hope that I can achieve it.

[Yolande Nell (BBC Reporter)]

That's assignment. I'm Yolande Nell and the producer's John Murphy. The programme was mixed by Gareth Jones.

[BBC Correspondent]

Gemma Ashman was the programme coordinator and

[Yolande Nell (BBC Reporter)]

the editor is Penny Murphy.