Israeli soldiers can be seen riding tanks near the border between Israel and Gaza.
Ilia Efimovich | Picture Alliance | Getty Images
On Saturday, Dovil Ben Aloya woke up intending to go for his usual morning run. Instead, he was met with blaring alarms and missiles flying over Tel Aviv.
Ben-Aroya, co-founder of Spike, a workplace collaboration platform with clients including Fiverr. snowflake, spotify Wicks was confused for more than an hour. “No one knew what was going on,” he recalled. However, as time went on, social media and text messages from his friends began to fill in his feelings.
That morning, the Palestinian militant group Hamas carried out a terrorist attack near the Israel-Gaza border, killing civilians and taking hostages. On Sunday, Israel declared war and began a siege of Gaza, cutting off access to electricity, food, water and fuel. According to the Israeli embassy in Washington, more than 1,000 Israelis have been killed so far. The death toll in Gaza and the West Bank is approaching 850, according to the region’s two health ministries.
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At 3pm local time on Saturday, Ben Arloya held an all-hands meeting, which he said was attended by all 35 full-time employees based in Israel. People shared their experiences, and Ben Arloya decided that everyone should work from home for the time being, adding that if anyone wanted to move from Israel with their family, the company would support them. He told CNBC that at least 10% have decided to take up the offer, and he believes more will take up the offer in the coming weeks.
According to the Israel Innovation Authority, Israel’s technology community accounts for almost a fifth of the country’s annual gross domestic product, making it the country’s largest sector of economic output. The high-tech sector also accounts for about 10% of the total workforce. Even during the war, much of Israel’s tech community is still looking for ways to move forward, according to Ben Arloya and several other tech community members CNBC spoke to.
Israeli soldiers stand guard at the Supernova Desert Music Festival venue after the Israeli army managed to secure the area around Reims.
Ilia Efimovich | Picture Alliance | Getty Images
Ben Arroya had planned to launch Spike’s integrated artificial intelligence tools last Monday, but almost immediately decided to put the project on hold, but only for a week.
For Amitai Ratsun, CEO of cybersecurity firm Penterra, Saturday started with “uncertainty and a lot of confusion,” but his company held an all-hands meeting with 350 attendees on Monday. At the time of the event, he recalled that some employees based in Israel thought the work was good. Distraction. For those who feel the opposite way, the company allows them to take the time off they need.
Pentera, which operates in 20 countries and has its largest employee base in Israel, has trained clients such as BNP Paribas, Chanel and Sephora to imitate cyberattacks and identify weaknesses in their systems. I specialize in Mr. Latzon said that in the midst of the conflict, some international agreements had to be restructured. Israel canceled a training session where some employees had been flown to Israel, asked someone to stand in for a keynote speech scheduled for Monaco, and flew team members from Germany and the UK to a conference in Dubai. Employees based in the US were scheduled to participate.
“Everyone is covering for each other,” Lutzon told CNBC.
A significant number of technology workers have already been called up into the reserves, totaling around 360,000 Israelis to date.
Lutzon said Penterra currently has more than 20 talented employees, “some of whom are on the front lines.”
Isaac Heller, CEO of Trullion, an accounting automation startup with offices in Tel Aviv, told CNBC that the company’s finance director just completed a financial forecast for 2024 after raising more than $50,000 to secure it. He said he soon delivered new body armor to Israeli Defense Force units. they.
About 10% of digital bank One Zero’s roughly 450 employees, all based in Israel, have been drafted into the military reserves, CEO Gal Bar Dia told CNBC. He was surprised to see that people were always spontaneously covering for each other in his WhatsApp group of employees.
“This guy says he’s been drafted, and then all of a sudden three people swoop in and cover for him,” Bar Dia said. “There’s a business-as-usual feel and everything is moving forward. … We had some meetings today about upcoming new product launches. Everyone keeps moving and covering each other.”
One Zero is working on a chatbot similar to ChatGPT for customer service, and this week employees opted to attend an optional planning meeting and decided not to change the deadline, Bar Dea said. Stated. The man leading the ChatGPT effort is a drafted Air Force pilot who chooses to wear military uniform and participate in conference calls between missions, Bar Dia said.
“So many members of the technology community are being called up to reserve duty,” Yaniv Sadka, an investment associate at aMoon, a venture capital firm focused on health tech and life sciences, told CNBC. A member of the section added: They were drafted into Israel’s intelligence forces on a reserve mission.
“By tonight I will have already attended two military funerals,” Sadka said.
Barr said some members of Israel’s technology community have created resources for conflict-related conflicts, such as message board websites for missing persons, cyber defense tools, tools like GoFundMe, and even resources to find online psychologists. He says he is working overtime to develop unique technology tools. DEA.
“This is pretty amazing. This is the secret sauce of the emerging nation of Israel,” Bar Dia told CNBC. “In two days, people raised money, volunteered, adopted children, They’re building new houses, walking abandoned dogs…All the tech companies are building cyber stuff, communications stuff, helping civilians, websites to find hostages, etc. Masu.”
Sadka said he has “never seen” anything like the large-scale donations and large-scale volunteer efforts that are happening now.
“Thousands and thousands and thousands of people are taking care of each other. From teenagers to senior citizens, everyone is helping,” he said.
Five minutes before Bar Dia called CNBC, Bar Dia said he heard sirens blaring from his office and his wife took their children inside to evacuate.
“It’s interesting to try to be the CEO of a bank or a tech company, but on the other hand I’m the father of a 10-year-old and a 6-year-old,” Bar Dia said, adding: “It’s very difficult.” This is something we have never experienced before. …Everyone is trying to figure out how to deal with this from a business perspective and from a personal perspective. ”
Sadka added: “It’s very difficult to concentrate on work while dealing with all these personal issues and keeping yourself and the country safe.”
