From Gaza to WCEU 2025 Basel – My Journey as a WordPress Developer from War to Community

🇵🇸 From a Refugee Camp to a Worldwide Community

I was born and raised in Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza — one of the most crowded places on earth. A place where electricity cuts were normal, water came in buckets, and even simple internet access was a daily battle. But it’s also the place where I became a WordPress and WooCommerce developer. I didn’t go to fancy schools or work in glass buildings — I learned by doing, failing, repeating, and staying curious.

Gaza wasn’t easy. But it gave me focus, grit, and a reason to push forward.

💣 Living Through War

When the war started in 2023, the scale wasn’t the same as the previous wars imposed on a besieged population of Gaza. It turned into a brutal genocide, targeting civilians, homes, and entire neighborhoods. For six months, I was trapped inside Gaza. Every day, I woke up not knowing if I or my loved ones would survive the next airstrike.

Getting food became a full-time job. I stood in line for hours to buy just a bag of flour. Sometimes there was no bread. Drinking water was scarce and often unsafe. Showering became a luxury, sometimes I could only use one small bottle of water to clean myself.

🏃 Forced to Flee — Under the Gun

I got married just one month before the war started. My wife and I were full of hope, planning a simple future together in Gaza, despite all the challenges.

But soon after, everything collapsed.

We were forced to evacuate from northern Gaza to the south, walking through a military checkpoint, surrounded by tanks and armed soldiers. We stood in line, a long, slow-moving line of displaced families, with our hands raised in the air, step by step, under the eyes of a tank.

My wife was shaking. I held her hand, trying to stay calm for both of us. But deep inside, I was just as afraid.

We weren’t carrying weapons. We weren’t fighters. We were just a young married couple trying to survive.
All I had with me was my laptop and some food packed in a WordPress tote bag I’d gotten from WCEU 2023, everything that mattered to me at that moment.

Not long after we reached the south, my wife’s father was killed in an airstrike. We didn’t even get to say goodbye or grieve due to the continuous bombardment.

And yet, despite all of this — despite everything — we’re still trying to build a better life. Because that’s the only thing we can do. Keep going. Keep trying. Keep hoping.

🎒Leaving Gaza – With Just My Laptop and a WordPress Tote Bag

After weeks of surviving in unbearable conditions, I had to make one of the most difficult decisions of my life: to leave Gaza on my own. I was only able to leave because of the support from the company I work with, they stepped in and helped cover the huge fees the Egyptian authorities charged to cross the border during the war. It was the hardest decision I’ve ever made, leaving behind my entire family: my wife, my parents, my brother, my sisters, and their families, all of them still trapped in a war zone.

A month later, by some miracle, my wife, one of my sisters, and my brother managed to escape. This was only possible because of a GoFundMe campaign where many people from the Automattic and Codeable community generously contributed to help get them out. We reunited in Egypt, and for a short while, we felt like a family again — displaced, but together.

🌍 WordCamp Europe Journey

❌ A Failed First Attempt

In 2024, I tried to attend WordCamp Europe in Turin, Italy. I had the passion, the knowledge, the motivation, but not the legal papers. As a Palestinian stuck in Egypt after fleeing Gaza, I had no residency, no ID, and no right to even apply for a visa.

🇴🇲 A New Chapter in Oman

That’s when I made a hard decision. I left Egypt and moved to Oman, hoping for more stability and legal residency. It wasn’t easy to start from scratch, but I kept working, building WooCommerce plugins, contributing to projects, and slowly getting back on my feet. Oman gave me room to breathe, time to plan, and most importantly, a legal status.

✈️ The Second Try – and This Time, It Worked

Months later, I tried again. This time, I applied for a Schengen visa from Oman. I was nervous. I’d already been rejected by borders and systems that didn’t care about where I came from or what I could do. But luck, and persistence, were on my side. I got approved.

Holding that visa in my hand felt unreal. It wasn’t just permission to travel — it was a small victory against everything that tried to stop me.

🇨🇭 WCEU 2025 — More Than Just a Tech Event

I attended WordCamp Europe 2025 in Basel, Switzerland.

I wasn’t just there to listen to talks or meet plugin authors. I was there because I believe stories like mine matter. I come from a place that’s usually erased from conversations. But I’m also part of this global community — a developer who pushed through war, exile, and paperwork, and still showed up.

Being there was not just for me. It was for every Palestinian developer still stuck behind walls. It was for every freelance coder who has talent but no passport. It was for those who build in silence, under fire, and without recognition.

💔 Still Separated — In Every Way

Just before WCEU, I had to leave my wife and baby son in Egypt. I traveled to Europe to attend the event and explore a new future for my family. My wife and one-year-old son stayed behind in Egypt, waiting in limbo. This time, we don’t know when we’ll be reunited.

I looked at my baby’s photos almost every minute during the event — trying to hold on to every small detail while we’re apart. Being away from him and my wife has been incredibly painful. And at the same time, I’m also far from my mother, father, brothers, and sisters — all still in Gaza, living through unimaginable hardship.

That pain never fades, a constant shadow following me even as I kept going for all of them. While I walked freely through Switzerland, my parents, sisters, and closest friends remained trapped in Gaza’s nightmare, existing without homes, surviving on animal feed disguised as bread, drinking contaminated water that makes them sick, living without electricity, schools, or hospitals. They endure each day without the most basic human right: safety. The genocide continues relentlessly, now over a year and a half of systematic destruction. Every morning, with trembling hands, I check my phone not for work messages but for the simplest, most desperate confirmation—that my family is still breathing, still alive. So as I sat listening to talks about WordPress performance and block themes, my heart remained split in two, my body in Basel, but my soul still in Gaza, aching with every breath for those I left behind

💻 WordPress Gave Me More Than a Job!

Being a WordPress developer gave me hope when I needed it most. The ability to work from anywhere meant I could survive and rebuild no matter where I ended up. WordPress wasn’t just a technology for me, it became my connection to a world of possibilities. The WordPress community helped me in ways I never expected. People reached out with support, advice, and genuine friendship. When everything felt uncertain, knowing I had skills that traveled with me and a community that welcomed me made all the difference. WordPress didn’t just give me work; it gave me a future I could believe in.

🙏 Grateful for Real Support

None of this would’ve been possible without the support of the company I work with — Progressus.io. During the most difficult moments — from trying to leave Gaza, to applying for visas, to finally making it to Basel for WCEU 2025 — they stood by me. Not just as an employer, but as humans who understood the weight of what I was going through. Their support wasn’t just professional — it was personal. And I’ll always be grateful for that.

💬 My Message to the WordPress Community

To everyone at WCEU and in the broader WordPress ecosystem:

• Don’t take your freedom for granted.
• Remember that talent exists everywhere — but opportunity does not.
• Keep building open tools. You never know who’s learning from them in the shadows.

And to every developer in Gaza , or in any part of the world facing war, exile, or isolation:

Keep going. Keep coding. You’re not invisible.

🔜 What’s Next?

After everything, I’ve now moved to Spain, starting yet another chapter, far from where I began. It’s not easy building a new life from scratch again, but it’s a step toward stability, safety, and possibility.

I don’t know exactly where this path will lead. But I do know what I’ll keep doing: working on what I love, WordPress, WooCommerce, and helping small ideas grow into real businesses.

I’ve seen what war can destroy. Now I want to see what code and community can build.