A Family Fighting for Survival Amid Genocide in Gaza

Eyad Khalil is organizing this fundraiser.

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My name is Iyad Khalil, a 24-year-old Palestinian from Gaza. My life has been a constant struggle, marked by harsh conditions beyond imagination. Born into a poor family, I was the eldest of my siblings, which forced me to leave school at an early age to help my father provide for our family.

Our family consisted of eight members: my father, my mother, my brothers—Mohammed (22 years old), who suffers from paralysis, Ahmed (20 years old), and Mahmoud (15 years old)—and my sisters, Hiba (18 years old), who is deaf but excels academically at a national level, Batool (12 years old), and Farah (7 years old). We lived in a small house with my grandparents. We barely managed to survive, but being together was all that mattered.

In October 2023, our lives changed forever. During that dark month, Israel launched an unprecedented campaign of genocide against Gaza. It was not a war—it was a massacre targeting children, women, and the elderly without mercy. On October 7, an airstrike hit our home, taking the lives of my father and my brother Ahmed. Our house was reduced to rubble, and my family was torn apart.

The only ones left were my mother and my remaining siblings, who were forced to flee northern Gaza under a hail of bullets and relentless bombing. They carried their grief and fear while walking through roads littered with the bodies of martyrs. I stayed in contact with them over the phone, hearing their trembling voices as they told me, “We are running from death only to face death again.” I felt utterly powerless, far away from them in a foreign land, unable to protect them. My mother walked through this hell with my sick siblings, trying to mask her fear to reassure them, but the pain in her voice shattered me.

They moved from one place to another, only to end up in makeshift tents in southern Gaza, in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis. They now sleep on the ground and use the sky as their only shelter, on the shores of Gaza’s sea. But even the tents were not spared from the bombardment. Last night, airstrikes targeted and burned the tents. My mother and siblings were injured in the attack. My sister Hiba, who is deaf, and my brother Mohammed, who is paralyzed, are now in critical condition. Heavy rain pours down relentlessly, flooding the torn tents, as my mother sits under the rain, desperately trying to shield her children from the cold. Meanwhile, I am here, far away, helpless to do anything.

My mother tells me that my younger siblings shiver from the cold and hunger, with nothing to sustain them or warm their fragile bodies. My 12-year-old sister Batool sits beside my brother Mohammed, trying to comfort him, while seven-year-old Farah cries in fear and hunger. This scene plays vividly in my mind, breaking my heart as I imagine their suffering and my inability to help them.

October 2023 was not just a month; it was a testament to the genocide against my people. Thousands of families were bombed, thousands of lives lost, and thousands more are now enduring hell—under rubble or in burned-out tents. My family is one of those families, and my innocent siblings are victims of this unimaginable nightmare.

Mohammed’s and Hiba’s conditions are deteriorating rapidly. Urgent action must be taken immediately to save their lives. They need urgent medical care, and delaying it will only cost us their lives.

I appeal to your kind hearts: please, help me save my family. My sister Hiba requires immediate medical attention, and my brother Mohammed needs continuous care. My mother and siblings desperately need a safe place, far from this inferno.

Do not leave us to face this fate alone. Every donation can provide us with a chance to live, a chance to save lives that dream only of living with dignity.

Please, be the hope we no longer have.

Attached are medical reports documenting their critical health conditions. Kindly take the time to review them.

Iyad Khalil,