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08-12-2023
GAZA CITY: The entrepreneurs of Gaza, a close-knit group who worked hand in hand to improve new graduates’ prospects, are reeling from the relentless killing of their colleagues by Israel as it bombards the blockaded Gaza Strip.
Mohammed Sharif Yousef, an entrepreneurship consultant at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), has lost many friends and peers, some of them killed after they were displaced to the areas in the south that the Israeli army claimed were safe.
Yousef himself was displaced from his home in Gaza City and is now in the southern city of Khan Younis.
He has more than 10 years of experience as an entrepreneur, trainer, mentor, and coach, but his displacement put him in a new role: volunteer relief worker.
“Families didn’t have the money to buy flour, which was barely available, or canned goods or vegetables,” he said.
Yousef used his motorcycle to deliver provisions to families who needed them. Eventually, his bike ran out of fuel so he kept running it using paint thinner, which led to some malfunctions but still enabled him to go out daily but as the casualties from Israel’s aerial bombardment kept increasing, he stopped going out.
The people in Yousef’s network had been the ones who found technological solutions to Gaza’s problems and, as their institutions grew, had created jobs for graduates with few work opportunities due to a 17-year siege imposed by Israel on Gaza.
On October 30, Yousef heard that his good friend Tariq Thabet, who directed the business incubator at the University College of Applied Sciences in Gaza, had been killed.
“I didn’t expect it,” Yousef said, in shock. “He had just returned from a trip from the US after receiving a Fulbright scholarship.”
Yousef said Thabet had, over about a decade and a half, helped thousands of young people find jobs, making a huge difference in a region as constrained as Gaza.
On November 14, two weeks after Thabet’s death, Yousef received more devastating news Abdelhamid al-Fayoumi, another friend, had been killed.
The two had become close friends after working together including at Gaza Sky Geeks and Work Without Borders.
They were roommates at a certain point, Yousef said, adding that Abdelhamid was a fantastic cook, whipping up mujadaras (rice and lentils with caramelized onions) and maqlubas (a layered meat, vegetable and rice dish cooked one way and flipped the other upon serving) on a moment’s notice.
They had promised to sit down with each other after the war, to talk about ideas and explore new horizons.
Al-Fayoumi had founded Sanabel, which produced software and multimedia resources for the local and regional Arab markets.
“Sanabel moved from failure to success and then sustainability, with a team working at an international level,” Yousef said. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
