Thirty-six-year-old Ahmed Shehada sits inside Alfairouz Cafe & Hub in Gaza City’s northern Sheikh Radwan district, looking around at the space he worked hard to rebuild. Less than a year ago, his small café was merely a damaged building. The walls and roof above the ground-floor business still show signs of the destruction left behind by Israeli bombing. Ahmed covered some of the damaged structure with colorful fabric, trying to create a warmer space for customers to sit and spend time together.
Now, Ahmed has prepared the café to welcome people who want to watch FIFA World Cup matches together.
“My children love football,” he says, referring to his two sons, twelve-year-old Hassan and ten-year-old Mohammed. “They keep asking me if we will show the matches and if people will come.”
“We need this small moment of happiness. I need it too,” he adds. “For a few hours, the World Cup can help us forget the war, the worries, and the uncertainty we live with every day.”
Nourdine Shnino
Alfairouz Cafe & Hub in Gaza City
Before the war, Ahmed owned a clothing factory that employed more than 100 workers and exported garments abroad. After graduating from the Islamic University in Gaza with a degree in English Accounting, he studied fashion design in Turkey, which helped him grow the family business started by his father. When the war began, Ahmed lost the business he had spent years building. His factory was destroyed, and his family’s six-story building was lost. Years of work disappeared, and with it, employment for hundreds of families in Sheikh Radwan.
“My biggest happiness was not only the success of the business—it was seeing people able to support their families through their work,” Ahmed says. “When the war ended, this place was completely damaged. We worked day and night to fix it. It took a lot of money and effort, but we wanted to start again.”
Nourdine Shnino
Alfairouz Cafe & Hub provides a place for Palestinians to gather.
Opening the café allowed Ahmed to continue creating opportunities for others. With construction materials, workers, and equipment difficult to access after the war, Ahmed and his team handled much of the work themselves. They removed rubble, repaired walls, installed tiles, and prepared the café with their own hands. Despite these challenges, Ahmed believes rebuilding livelihoods in Gaza is essential.
“We were one team. We worked day and night until we could open,” he says. “We can rebuild. We have the strength. We just need the war to truly end.”
Damaged infrastructure and electricity shortages due to Israel’s war on Gaza has made it difficult for Palestinians in the enclave to watch the World Cup. The electricity that is available is expensive: Ahmed spends about $1,440 each week to power his café. The costs have forced him to stop using energy-intensive equipment like the espresso machine. But he remains committed to providing community members with a gathering space to enjoy the matches.
“People need something that brings them together,” Ahmed says. “After everything they have been through, they want a few hours where they can sit, watch, laugh, and forget their worries.”
For Ahmed, seeing people happy is meaningful.
“When ten people sit together and laugh, you laugh with them,” he says. “When I see people enjoying their time, I feel happy too.”