Working in Gaza means working through outages
“Is my sound quality good?” Mohammed asks, hesitantly.
He mentions, surprised, that the headset he's using was pulled from underneath the rubble. The area was bombed multiple times, salvaged from destruction, and somehow the headset was still working perfectly, much like Mohammed and countless others from Gaza itself.
It's a simple detail, but it captures everything about Mohammed’s story. The resilience, the refusal to give up, the literal act of rising from the ruins when the world around you keeps falling apart.
A startup dream interrupted
For three years before the war, Mohammed had been building a startup. He was at the heart of the technical infrastructure as a backend engineer, and he worked extensively with JavaScript, TypeScript, and microservice architecture. The startup was a B2C model, a company that helped businesses share resources more efficiently.
He was doing what he loved, solving complex problems, building systems that mattered.
Displacement, disconnection, and uncertainty
“Then everything changed overnight,” he says.
When the genocide escalated, survival became the only priority. Mohammed, like most people in Gaza, had to leave his home. He moved from place to place, searching for safety that seemed impossible to find. For months, he was disconnected from his career, from his clients, from the outside world.
"The most difficult part was the uncertainty that came with it, whether I'm going ever to get back in my career or this is going to be my life forever," he says.
The struggle to reconnect
After about a year of displacement, Mohammed found himself in central Gaza. That's when he discovered a group of engineers setting up a hub. The internet was unstable. The lectures weren't the best. But it was something. It was a lifeline back to the world he knew, the world where he could create, contribute, and matter again.
Mohammed started reaching out to companies. He shared his story, sent his resume, and portrayed his skills. When recruiters learned he was from Gaza, the response was always the same: hesitation, followed by rejection.
“It makes sense in a way, not all companies look at skills first, like Apricot. Many focus on geographical location and stability,” he says.
That’s where his story intersected with Apricot.
What is Apricot International?
At Apricot, we believe talent knows no borders. We're a platform that connects companies with exceptional talent from the MENA region, with a particular focus on areas often overlooked by the global industry, such as Gaza. We don't see geographical location as a barrier; we see it as an opportunity to tap into brilliant minds who've been systematically excluded from the conversation.
When Mohammed reached out and shared his story, our team saw what so many others had overlooked. a brilliant engineer whose determination and expertise spoke louder than his circumstances. We saw his skills. Within a few meetings, Mohammed signed his contract and started working.
Apricot’s role in his journey
Since joining the Apricot team, Mohammed has continued to grow.
Provided stable, remote employment despite the instability in Gaza
Enabled him to **work on meaningful, high-impact projects, **allowing him to contribute to products that significantly change lives.
Facilitated **onboarding and mentorship, **helping him learn new technologies or architectural patterns that he hadn’t used before.
Recognized his skills over his location. Apricot doesn’t treat geographic instability as a barrier.
Supported his long-term vision for Gaza’s tech ecosystem by giving him professional stability and credibility, so he can plan to rebuild hubs, mentor others, and reinvest in his community.
A tech community the world is missing
“You’re missing out. There’s an incredibly talented, resilient, and skilled pool of engineers here. Despite everything, people keep creating, keep learning, keep building,” Mohammed said, when asked what he’d say to companies still hesitant to hire from Gaza or across MENA.
He says this because he knows the talent in Gaza firsthand. These are engineers who've had to overcome unimaginable challenges, not just since October 7, but long before. They've learned resilience as a skill before anything else. They're motivated in ways that privilege can never teach. And they're creating, innovating, and building despite everything working against them.
In the short term, Mohammed wants to complete the projects he's working on through Apricot, products that significantly change lives for the better. But his long-term vision is even more powerful: he's committed to rebuilding the tech ecosystem that existed in Gaza before the war. The hubs, the workspaces, the communities where he grew his career—he wants to restore them. He wants to mentor, collaborate, and support the next generation of Gaza engineers.
"The last two years were not easy," Mohammed reflects. "I've had decades' worth of pressure thrown at me in this short period. But if there's one thing I've learned, it's that the more pressure you're exposed to, the stronger you become. It has taught me that anything you can dream of, you can achieve, as long as you have the willpower to go after it."
More than just a favorite fruit
Before the call ends, there's one last question.
“What's your favorite fruit?”
Mohammed laughs. "Mango has always been my favorite, but now it's safe to say it's apricot."
Mohammed’s story is about the possibility of how Gaza’s talent, given the right opportunity, can rise from anywhere, even from beneath the rubble. And at Apricot International, that’s what we stand for: creating access, breaking barriers, and proving that potential knows no borders.
By:
