On the coastal road in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, seven university students – four in medicine, two in dentistry, one in software engineering – are behind the counter of an ice cream parlour. One student takes the orders, hastily filling ice cream cups, adding nuts and toppings before handing them over to a line of customers with a smile. Another moves between tables in the small seating area, serving customers, while a third manages the kitchen, keeping everything in order. A fourth handles the accounts, processing every transaction electronically since cash has largely disappeared from Gaza. Behind them all, is one of the founders, Ayyoub Abu Musleh, who is immersed in a call with a supplier, negotiating prices for raw materials that have gone up again due to Israel’s ongoing siege on the enclave. They call themselves “the doctors”, but their regular customers have taken to calling them “the nerds”. It is a nickname the ice cream vendors wear with pride since it acknowledges their lives beyond Flora, the ice cream and juice shop …
