hour's drive away, in the west bank city of ramallah, relative calm prevails and relative prosperity, at least by gaza standards. >> this is the home for many palestinian startups, and it's also the home for qual-i.t. >> reporter: in an office sharing spe that would be at home in boston, new york, or palo alto, 27-year-old montaser amro runs a software firm he helped found last ar. it can compete with anyone, says its i.t. chief, mohammed al- quaisi. >> the palestinian can do the software as piece of cake. >> reporter: amro has a somewhat less colloquial sales pitch. >> we have reliable internet, we have electricity 24 hours a day, we have people who go through five years of training to become i.t. engineers. >> reporter: and with a 50% unemployment rate in the west bank those i.t. engineers come at a steep discount to the competition. >> in the united states, they'lc probabrge $80 to $120 an hour. >> reporter: what about bangalore? >> india, we're talking about $20 to $25 an hour. in palestine, we can do it from .10 to $15 an ho we can compete with ukraine, you know, we can compete with