Gaza's Remote Work Sector Faces Critical

Before October 2023, thousands of educated Gazans had turned to freelancing and remote work due to a lack of local employment opportunities. The war that began that month has since devastated this small digital workforce, with Gaza's GDP collapsing by 83 percent in 2024 and the unemployment rate reaching 78 percent that same year.

Approximately 198,273 structures across Gaza were damaged, with 123,464 completely destroyed. This unprecedented damage includes offices, coworking spaces, and critical communications infrastructure. With physical reconstruction expected to take years, remote work is seen as a potential near-term source of humanitarian income and a longer-term building block for reconstruction.

Barriers to Developing the Digital Freelance Sector

The report identifies a wide range of barriers that skilled Gazans must now overcome to participate in the global labor market. The most fundamental question is whether workers have any access to the market at all.

Before the war, Gazans had access to several freelancing platforms. More than three thousand Palestinians from Gaza were registered on Freelancer.com as of 2018, around two thousand on Upwork, and roughly seven thousand on the Arabic platform Mostaql. Some platforms, including Upwork, Freelancer.com, and Mostaql, have continued to function during the conflict.

In practice, international clients sometimes refuse to hire Gazan freelancers out of concern about missed deadlines caused by power outages and displacement. Workers report concealing their location for fear of losing contracts. An influx of newly unemployed workers onto platforms has increased competition and pushed rates down.

Critical Infrastructure Failures

Electricity is described as arguably the single most critical barrier. Even before October 2023, residents regularly experienced power cuts of more than eight hours a day. The situation has deteriorated further, with electricity frequently unavailable and unstable when it is available. Costs have also risen sharply, with testimonies citing prices around $12 per kilowatt-hour during the war, compared with about $1.50 for 10 kilowatt-hours before.

Telecommunications present another severe hurdle. Gaza was already suffering from a structural technology gap, with only 2G service, while Israel upgraded to 4G and 5G. Any telecom change in Gaza requires Israeli approval. Since October 2023, much of the existing infrastructure has collapsed. As of April 2025, 64 percent of mobile towers in Gaza were out of service. In Rafah, cellular coverage collapsed to just 27 percent. The sector’s value crashed from $13 million in 2023 to $1.5 million in 2024, an 89 percent drop.

To work around restrictions, many Gazans try to obtain Israeli or Egyptian SIM cards unofficially. As a temporary solution, coworking spaces offer stable WiFi.

The Loss of Physical Workspaces

Physical coworking spaces have become another critical bottleneck. Gaza Sky Geeks (GSG), founded in 2011 with Google’s support, was the largest tech and coworking hub in Gaza. By 2023, it employed around 40 staff in Gaza and five in the West Bank. Four companies that grew within GSG raised investments ranging from $30,000 to $65,000.

Since the war, however, two of GSG’s three locations were destroyed in airstrikes. Despite this, GSG supported more than thirty Palestinian tech companies in 2024. In August 2025, it launched a pilot to support five independent coworking spaces, covering their internet and electricity bills. Other initiatives like Taqat Gaza, a network of solar-powered spaces, currently serves around five hundred freelancers.

The Payment Platform Problem

The payment barrier is one of the most glaring obstacles and has attracted considerable public attention. The problem differs across platforms. Some, like PayPal, do not operate in Palestinian territories at all, despite operating in two hundred other countries including conflict zones. According to one survey cited in the report, around 80 percent of Palestinian households would use PayPal if they could.

For other payment platforms such as Payoneer, Wise, Revolut, and Stripe, access is often technically possible but difficult to use in practice. Interviewees in Gaza report account closures triggered by IP address detection.