Delivery service in Gaza City: How “Torood” defies war and crisis

Everyday life in Gaza City has been marked by the Middle East conflict for decades. Despite all the adverse circumstances, an entrepreneur has set up his own delivery service start-up – with success.

Traffic chaos reigns at the Al Zogag Wa Al Ramla intersection in Gaza City, the capital of the Gaza Strip. There are no working traffic lights. Cars brake, accelerate, scrape past each other, somehow things are moving forward. A man jumps out of a car and runs into a building. Ibrahim Adria is in a hurry, he works as a driver for the “Torood” delivery service, which means “parcel”. It is the only tech start-up in Gaza that delivers packages – controlled by an app.

“Peace and tranquility is better for our business”

“The work is much better than other jobs in Gaza. Before that I was a taxi driver, but now I earn more for myself and my wife,” says Ibrahim. He studied sociology but couldn’t find a job. For four months he has been delivering packages for the start-up that was founded three years ago. The “Torood” app shows drivers and customers where the ordered goods are, where they have to go in the Gaza Strip and when they will arrive.

Payment is made via e-wallet on the Internet. The app calculates the delivery route so that as many packages as possible arrive in the shortest possible time – provided there is no air raid. “When the attacks start, we usually make it home. If there’s war here and the rockets are flying, it’s too dangerous for our drivers. Then the delivery service collapses,” says the head of the development department, Mahmoud Abushawish. “We don’t want to lose anyone. Peace and quiet is better for our business.”

Founded in the middle of the war

In the Gaza Strip, people are used to crises and are therefore more willing to take risks, says “Torood” founder Ezz Alakhras. The young man in a black business suit pulls out his mobile phone. He shows pictures after a rocket attack in May 2021 that hit his neighbor’s house and also damaged his home. His wife and daughter fled to his parents in the country, he himself slept in the basement of his newly founded company.

“At home there were splinters all over the living room floor. The windows were broken and so was the furniture,” Alakhras recalls. “There was an attack on the next street. Very close. It was difficult because we were at war during the founding phase, but I see an opportunity in every problem.”

Rapid growth under adverse circumstances

In the storage room in the basement, which also serves as a bunker during air raids, the drivers take pre-sorted plastic bags with packages from metal shelves, scan them with barcode scanners and push the orders in shopping trolleys to their cars. These include clothing, shoes, cosmetics, kitchen appliances and toys.

“90 percent of the people who order online in Gaza are women because they take care of the family at home,” says Alakhras, referring to the rapid growth of his company: “Our growth rate is 70 percent. A year ago we did we delivered 10,000 packages a month, now it’s up to 20,000 packages a month.”

According to Alakhras, the start-up benefited during the corona pandemic because most people in Gaza also began to order online. The company grew in a short time – 13 permanent employees and 40 contract drivers became two of them. A total of around 100 families make a living from the parcel business, says Alakhras proudly. He firmly believes that despite all the adversities in Gaza, e-commerce will continue to grow. Instead of buying a house for his family, he put his entire life savings – around $10,000 – into his start-up.

“What political influence do shoes have?”

The biggest challenge for the small company is the Israeli authorities, says Alakhras. “If there are political problems or violence escalates, the border crossings where our goods come through are closed,” he says. Then they don’t arrive at all or arrive late, and that hurts business. For Alakhras, “Torood” is non-political: “I wonder what political impact, for example, shoes that are ordered have?”

Since the radical Islamist Hamas has ruled the Gaza Strip, Israel has severely restricted the import of goods into Gaza. Many goods may not be imported – especially not if they can be used to build weapons.

Another challenge is power outages. Often there is only six hours of electricity a day. Then Alakhras has to buy electricity from generators, which is eight times the normal price. Finding investors under such circumstances is difficult; he has been searching for three years. Now it could work for the first time with an investor from Turkey who wants to help him gain a foothold there.