The situation in Gaza has been suffocating through the sixteen-year-old Siege, which the Israeli occupation imposes on Gaza. The dark face of the occupation includes the extremist attempts of restricting livelihood for the Gazans. It affects electricity, jobs, products, crossing points, goods, salaries, and each and every aspect of life. It affects the essential needs of any simple human being. Nevertheless, Gaza is still alive and existing in all aspects of life. How does Gaza hold on life despite the dark face of the occupation? What power does Gaza rely on?

The Great Attempts of The Gazans to Overcome The Dark Face of The Occupation
The people of Gaza have religious background. 90% of them are Muslims. This strengthens people to still hold on life and to have the potentials that enable the minimum limit of living. Huge amount of people in Gaza insist on living like normal human beings with a decent life. The people of Gaza got used to spend their days without electricity. Just imagine your life without electricity; it is very frustrating. On the contrary, this situation did create the power to overcome this problem somehow. The people of Gaza work on solar power projects. For example, The Islamic University of Gaza uses solar power in enhancing the educational process and reducing the costs.

The Self-Reliance in the People of Gaza
Many challenges created the impact of self-reliance in the people of Gaza. A great example of self-reliance is creating a local production that holds the sentence: Made in Gaza. Al Awda factories, Abu Aita dairy products, Mashael artistic production, Al Yazji drinks are examples of Gazan local production. It is very usual in Gaza to see a new restaurant every month. Like Bab Al Bahar, which opened a few days ago, they make risks to have their own income source. Looking at Gaza, you will see many brand-new projects processing in all domains: new restaurants, resorts, Real Estates, cars, and more.

Moreover, some housewives devote their selves to learn cooking in order to make food and sell it locally. They become homemakers to overcome the dark face of the occupation. Freelancing is a tremendous opportunity that creates remotely working freelancers. So many centers offer the service of teaching and recruiting freelancers like Gaza Sky Geeks. They help them to be ready to make their own income.

Nowadays, Palestinian workers try so hard to get Israeli work permit to work in the occupied lands of Palestine. It is not easy as it seems, but at least they can make somehow good salaries. Immigration is another way for the Gazans to overcome the dark side of the Israeli occupation. One of the family members can travel outside Gaza, find work, and send money to the family. Some people may travel for the sake of trading in all kinds of goods. They buy the goods from china and Turkey in cheap prices. Then they sell them in higher prices to earn little profits. Alternatively, they ship the goods from outside the country by dealing with shipping companies for a specific amount of commission.

Other Simple Attempts
A funny experience for the Gazans is using cooking oil as a fuel for cars. They used it during the fuel crisis. In addition, many male university students used to study under the light of the street. This used to be before the spreading of LED lights. So many Gazan citizens succeeded in making themselves icons worldwide. Mohammad abu Asaker was a normal university student; he works now in the United Nations. Mohammed Assaf, the Palestinian singer and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, succeeded in being famous worldwide. He also succeeded in spreading the heinous actions of the Israeli occupation. Other simpler ways of overcoming the occupation’s dark impact includes going to the sea in hot days. They take it as a way to mitigate the intensity of the weather. Going to the sea, is the biggest and the most successful free place for all people.

Still Appearing Challenges
Other may prefer to go to any restaurant. You might find a holder of bachelor degree who is working in Falafel restaurant, which completely blows the mind. Imagine that you spend four year at least of studying, and you pay so much money for that. Then you change your field because there is no available job related to your field. So many people can learn new skills or new crafts to keep up with the working demands. Although the people of Gaza created all the previously mentioned opportunities to overcome the dark impact of the Israeli occupation; they are not enough for a decent life and have many negative aspects, unfortunately.

Restaurants and resorts’ costs are not affordable for nearly 90% of the people of Gaza. The general appearance of the quality of living in Gaza tempts so many foreigner people. You can find everything you want, eat whatever meal you want, go to any resort and have a good day. Nevertheless, they do not know that these new projects 90% of them are made by debts, unfortunately. Moreover, trading projects have risks. They may make good profits or may be a big loss especially in a place like Gaza. The hardest part of all is working under the command of the Israelis. The Palestinian workers who hold a work permit in Israel suffers from injustice and oppression there. Simply, they may be killed. In other words, the Gazans are still affected by the dark face of the occupation.

Gazans did not surrender to these circumstances, and they continued to live to find their chance in life. They see a ray of hope through these self-created opportunities. This gives them the Badge of Honor that many peoples failed to have through the history. They do have a great potential to solve problems in the weirdest ways that would not come to your mind.