Gaza Sky Geeks

Gaza Sky Geeks (GSG) is Palestine's first and largest technology training hub and startup accelerator, launched in Gaza City in 2011 by the humanitarian organisation Mercy Corps with founding support from Google.org. It runs three core programmes: Code Academy, a developer bootcamp; SkyLancer Academy, which trains freelancers for the global remote-work market; and GeeXelerator, a startup accelerator offering seed grants and mentorship.

Since launch, GSG has trained participants through these three programmes, roughly half of cohorts female, and ran a 2013 startup competition that attracted 164 local entries funded in part by a Google seed grant reported at $900,000 to $1 million depending on the source.

GSG reports more than 60,000 participants trained overall, with around 85% of graduates going on to paid employment or self-employment, at an average reported salary of about $700 a month within a year of graduating. These figures are self-reported by the organisation and corroborated in broad terms by Wikipedia and Rest of World reporting, though GSG has not published detailed participant or outcome statistics for 2024-2026, only qualitative descriptions of roughly 30 supported firms and a 2025 coworking pilot.

GSG's Gaza City office was destroyed shortly after the war escalated in October 2023, and one GSG-trained illustrator, Mahasen Khateeb, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in October 2024. The organisation shifted training to remote and hybrid delivery from Ramallah and a small Gaza-based team, and in 2025 began piloting subsidies for electricity and internet costs at five coworking spaces inside Gaza to keep freelancers and small tech firms online. Programme continuity remains fragile amid the unstable ceasefire that began in October 2025.