Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, January/February 2025, pp. 26-27
Daily Life and Shattered Dreams in Gaza—Young Writers Share Their Stories
By Waseem B. Ayesh
I HAVE BEEN MARRIED since 2018 and have a wonderful wife and a 4-year-old son named Adam. We used to have a happy life in our home in northern Gaza, and I had a good job providing digital marketing services to businesses. I worked with major companies across various industries and countries—including Germany (Alugha GmbH), Spain (Niche Perfumes), Türkiye (Larista Properties), the UAE (Aqarati), and Saudi Arabia (Missaan Fintech, Drive7)—creating and launching advertising campaigns on various social media platforms, creating digital content for social media, writing video scripts, and providing search engine optimization analysis and other related services.
But since Oct. 7, 2023, we have been displaced nine times so far: to Nuseirat, Rafah, Khan Younis, to several areas in Deir al-Balah, and currently to the small village of Al-Zawayda. Because I could not get steady internet access and electricity or concentrate on my work, I lost my job 15 days after the war started.
I applied for many new jobs, which was hard to do during the displacements. For example, I once did an interview in the middle of the street. A person sold internet access from a simple street stall by providing login credentials for two hours at a time; I had to stand near his shop to make use of the internet access.
Unfortunately, the speed was slow because the vendor overloaded his network with too many users at the same time. He did not have a chair or desk, so I carried my laptop into the street to get the best connection and did the interview standing up and speaking in English. You can imagine how passersby looked at me while I was standing with my headphones in my ears and speaking a foreign language.
Eventually I was able to get a contract with a company, and I worked with them for four months, but then my contract was terminated because I was unable to stay online continuously with my colleagues from other spots of the world. The lack of electricity meant that I could not run my laptop during work hours. There is currently only one source of electricity in Gaza, which is solar panels, and if the sun sets or it’s a cloudy day, you will not get electricity at all; when your laptop runs out of power, you must wait until the sun reappears.
As a result of my living and working conditions, I had to think of another source of income.
My younger brother, Ahmed, had purchased a printer to print pages from his digital school textbooks so he could have more time to study them when his laptop was not powered; he printed textbook pages for my four other brothers and my two sisters, too. We all used the printer to make extra copies of our ID papers, as well.
Later, during a period when the Rafah crossing was open, my brother paid $5,000 to an Egyptian “travel agency” to allow him to cross from Gaza to Egypt through the Rafah border, and he left his printer with me. I thought about making use of this printer to offer printing services to people. I would be the only one offering printing services in a relatively large geographic area, and this encouraged me to start the project.
What an idea it turned out to be! I didn’t expect the demand for this service to be so high. I built a simple tent out of some wood and fabric and placed the tent on the sidewalk; fortunately, the printer doesn’t consume much electricity. I powered both the printer and my laptop with a battery that I charge daily from a neighbor who has a solar power system and charges 10 shekels ($2.74). He also charges 1 shekel (27 cents) to recharge a phone.
Soon, people began coming to me to print their documents, such as IDs and birth certificates. Many people need paper copies of these records to register with UNRWA or other organizations for assistance in their new displacement location. Some camp managers have also used my services to print Excel sheets of camp registrants, for aid distribution purposes.
School and university students come to print their e-books because, like my brothers and sisters, they don’t have adequate electricity to power their laptops long enough to read through their digital books. Also, some customers request other services such as data entry and graphic design. For example, one day, I was buying from a restaurant that was still operating and I saw that the restaurant employee was writing the customers’ orders on pieces of paper, so I suggested to the restaurant owner that I design the menu and design tickets for the customers’ carryout orders. He agreed and asked for a sample at first and we agreed to print more later. I often hire my brothers for these tasks as I am busy dealing with the customers.
Customers pay in cash for our services. Those who live here know that this is a major issue, due to the closure of banks and destruction or closure of ATMs across the Gaza Strip. People often have to get cash from merchants, who charge a 30 percent fee. Sometimes because of the cash liquidity problems, customers want to pay by bank transfer, but this payment method is really troublesome.
Another challenge I face is keeping supplied with paper and ink cartridges. I buy these supplies from computer stores, which still have supplies in their warehouses, although the prices are now very high. I price-compare on Facebook to find the most affordable products.
Currently, I work four to five hours a day, and I have to postpone any work until the next day if I haven’t completed the required tasks before my battery runs out. Meanwhile the demand for my services keeps increasing, so now I’m pursuing a plan to purchase my own simple solar power system, which would allow me to work for six to eight hours a day and provide my services more effectively.
Having my own energy source would also enable my brother, who works beside me sewing clothes, to run his sewing machine for more hours. With more power I could hire another employee to work with me on the data entry, design and other tasks we can offer. This would allow us to expand our capacity and better meet the growing demand for our services.
My dear son Adam loves toy cars and watching cartoons like Mr. Bean, but nowadays these forms of entertainment are not available to him. So instead, he hangs out around my business tent while I work. He helps me with simple tasks like handing me paper or cables to transfer files from the mobile to the laptop.
So, this is the life of a digital marketer-turned-entrepreneur. In Gaza, the war doesn’t just destroy buildings, it tries to break souls. But here’s the truth they don’t tell you: we don’t just survive; we rise from the ashes with ink-stained hands and dreams they can never erase.
Waseem B. Ayesh is a digital marketer professional from Gaza City, a proud husband and father. A graduate of the University of Palestine with a degree in Information Technology, he is passionate about innovation and problem-solving, combining his technical expertise with creative thinking to adapt to challenging circumstances.
