But after months of an Israeli genocidal war, displacement, banking paralysis, and a severe liquidity crisis, mobile phones have become essential financial tools for many Palestinian residents of the besieged coastal enclave trying to survive. [Getty]
When Samer al-Haddad arrives at a vegetable cart near the tent where his family now lives in western Gaza City, he carries no wallet and no cash. Instead, he scrolls through an application on his battered smartphone, selects a digital payment option, and transfers the cost of tomatoes, cucumbers, and bread directly to the vendor before walking away.
Before the current Israeli genocidal war on Gaza, the 39-year-old teacher displaced from Beit Hanoun had rarely used electronic payment services.
Like most Palestinians in the war-torn coastal enclave, he relies almost entirely on paper money for daily transactions.
But after months of an Israeli genocidal war, displacement, banking paralysis, and a severe liquidity crisis, mobile phones have become essential financial tools for many Palestinian residents of the besieged coastal enclave who are trying to survive.
“The war changed everything, even the way we buy food. At first, people thought the cash shortage would last for a few weeks. But over time, getting cash became humiliating and exhausting,” Samer told The New Arab. “Obtaining physical money now often comes at a punishing cost. Families receiving remittances or salaries via bank transfers frequently lose substantial portions of their funds to cash brokers who charge steep commissions for banknotes.”
“There were times I lost nearly half the money my brother sent me so that I could withdraw it in cash. It felt like we were being punished twice—once by the war and again by the collapse of the financial system,” he added.
As cash shortages intensified, e-wallet applications rapidly spread through markets, grocery stores, transportation networks, and displacement camps.
What was once a limited service used mainly for convenience has become one of the few ways to maintain some form of economic life amid the destruction.
A war economy built around mobile phones
Inside a cramped grocery store in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, 34-year-old mother of four Lina Abu Odeh carefully checks her phone screen before paying for canned food and cooking oil through an electronic wallet application.
Many in Gaza, like Lina, initially distrusted digital payments and had little experience with financial apps before the war.
“I was scared of making mistakes or losing money electronically, but people here were forced to learn very quickly because there simply weren’t other options,” she told TNA.
The worsening liquidity crisis has devastated families. She said cash brokers often deduct 30 to 40 per cent of transferred funds for physical currency, worsening survival in a territory hit by war, unemployment, displacement, and hunger.
“Imagine losing nearly half your money before buying food for your children. For families under bombardment and displacement, this is another catastrophe,” she added.
The shift to digital payments faces challenges due to Gaza’s war-damaged telecommunications and electricity infrastructure, resulting in weak internet connectivity, unstable power, and frequent network interruptions.
“Sometimes people stand in markets for an hour waiting for the network to come back so they can complete a payment,” Lina said. “If the internet cuts off, everything stops.”
Despite those difficulties, many residents describe e-wallets as a partial relief from the chaos surrounding everyday financial transactions.
“At least we no longer spend entire days searching for usable cash, and we don’t have to argue with shopkeepers over torn banknotes anymore,” she continued.
In al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, 28-year-old grocery shop owner Mohammed al-Najjar told TNA that “the electronic payments have become nearly unavoidable for small businesses trying to continue operating.”
“At the beginning, customers were hesitant. People didn’t fully trust the system. But now most payments happen through phones because there’s simply not enough cash circulating,” he said.
Outside many shops across Gaza, handwritten signs displaying e-wallet account numbers have become increasingly common. Vendors selling vegetables, cigarettes, bread, and even second-hand clothes now rely on mobile transfers to keep their businesses functioning.
“Even tiny street stalls are using these apps now, […] People are trying to adapt however they can,” he said.
Adapting to collapse
Electronic payments have eased some of the tensions faced by business owners created by deteriorating cash supplies.
Raed al-Masri, who owns a small supermarket in Deir al-Balah, told TNA that the merchants previously faced constant disputes over worn or damaged banknotes that customers had little choice but to use after months of circulation.
“Many bills are torn, faded, or partially destroyed […] Sometimes customers would beg us to accept money that banks themselves might reject,” he said.
Electronic transfers, he added, have reduced some of those confrontations while allowing businesses to continue functioning despite the broader collapse of Gaza’s banking sector.
“The war forced even elderly people to learn how to use smartphones for payments. You now see older men standing in shops asking their children how to complete digital transfers,” he continued.
According to Marwan al-Sousi, who manages an electronic payment company operating in Gaza, the number of e-wallet users has increased dramatically since the beginning of the war.
“The scale of reliance on digital payments today is unprecedented. Electronic wallets are no longer a luxury or an additional service. For many families, they’ve become essential for survival,” he told TNA.
Al-Sousi said the spread of digital transactions accelerated as banks reduced operations, cash supplies dwindled, and humanitarian aid distributions increasingly relied on electronic systems.
“Displaced people, aid recipients, shop owners, students—entire sectors of society are now dependent on these services,” he added.
But the expansion of digital finance inside Gaza remains deeply vulnerable to the realities of war. Communication blackouts, fuel shortages, damaged infrastructure, and power outages continue to disrupt transactions and isolate residents from financial services.
“We’re trying to keep systems running under extremely difficult conditions, but maintaining digital services during an active war is enormously challenging,” he explained.
Amin Zaqout, an economist based in Gaza, believes the spread of e-wallets reflects both Palestinian resilience and the scale of Gaza’s economic collapse.
“People in Gaza constantly adapt to survive crises, but what we are witnessing also reveals how deeply the war has shattered normal economic life,” he told TNA.
According to Zaqout, digital payments may temporarily ease the liquidity crisis, but they cannot resolve the structural problems caused by Israel’s genocidal war and its blockade, which in turn causes the collapse of financial circulation in Gaza.
