After more than 11 days of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, the hopes and aspirations of many shop owners, factories and small workshops were dashed. The shelling and incessant bombing destroyed many of them. These owners have now joined many others who have been unemployed since the siege was imposed on the Gaza Strip more than 15 years ago.  

Amid the high unemployment rates and the ongoing Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip, many women in Gaza, most notably new graduates from Palestinian universities, are trying to start their own projects, carving out their places on social media in a bid to promote their homemade products — something that has provided them with an income to make ends meet.

According to the Social Medial Report for 2020 issued by Ipoke — a Palestinian website specialized in digital studies — Facebook was at the top of the most used social media platforms among Palestinians with 92.01% of users, followed by WhatsApp with 76.81% and 63.25% for Instagram.

The same study found that 53.2% are male users as opposed to 64.8% of female users. Of those, 86% of users use social media as a source of news, while 43% use it for e-marketing.