HELP NAHED SURVIVE & REBUILD WITH HIS FAMILY IN GAZA

UPDATE 5/20/2025:

Hello world,

My name is Nahed Hajjaj and I am a Palestinian Journalist from Gaza.

I am 26 years old. I want to ask you for a huge favor. To stand by me and my family, as we try to survive this death trap.

The YEAR+ long carpet bombings in Gaza have completely shattered our lives, leaving myself and my family homeless and without any possesions. Our beloved home, a symbol of our efforts and love, was completely destroyed in the Shujaiya neighborhood, forcing us to leave it; fleeing death. We suddenly found ourselves with nothing but the clothes on my back and a few torn up identification papers in our hands.

Fast forward a YEAR AND A HALF, we are now displaced people living in a tent on the side of a road in the West of Gaza City. My family is suffering greatly from everything. The most basic necessities of life are non-existent here. The price of a bag of flour in Gaza City has reached $1,000 dollars, if one can even find it!

The famine has worsened for us, I am not exaggerating. Is that even possible? We haven't had real food in so long, I can't even remember. We eat spoiled canned food, which is considered lucky, as thankfully, we have support from this gofundme to find these things, even if spoiled. Being able to afford these minimal things we find, is considered being rich here.

The shelling and bombings continue. They are so scary. I feel like I am helpless and trapped in constant nightmares of death swirling around me and my family. Please help my family, even with a small donation. Even a tiny one. If you can't donate, donate :-)

I'm doing all I can with all my spirit, so my family can live like the rest of the world. We are suffering and don't want to die here, like this, as disgarded limbless street animals.

For the last 19 months, the Palestinian population is still STARVING TO DEATH, THIRSTY and we are still facing EXTREME famine. As some of you (and hope most of you now), can see on your cell phone screens, the famine is still occuring today, whilst we are constantly being attacked with state of the art modern 2,000 pound AI bombs. Made in the USA and fascilitated by UK military intelligence and state of the art fighter jets.

We thought there was hope due to the Ceasfire that occurred a few months ago. Now we face extermination. More bombing and more disease, malnutrition/starvation, injuries, trauma/ptsd, depression, but most of all-immeasurable FEAR. WHEN WILL THIS SUFFERING FINALLY END?

I have nightmares everyday--of the thousands of children I have seen lifeless with my own eyes. Murdered. Masscres and Shattered lives is the norm here. As if these lives didn't matter. As if Palestinians are the enemy. Blamed and disgarded, as if we don't exist. Why can't the world leaders faschilitating this war, not see us as human beings like everyone else? It is so painful!

All that to say, we continue to suffer to an unbelievable degree due to the COMPLETE BLOCKADE of Humanitarian aid, FOOD/WATER, medicines, shelter, clothes, hygine products, electricity and so much more.

Now it is very hot and disease is rampant. Our conditions are even worse than before, which I cannot believe I am saying--Leaving us no breaks from this deep suffering.

We never get a break! We never sleep anymore! We are constantly being displaced and left on the rubble to fend for ourselves for something the population didn't deserve. Our minds and bodies are traumatized indefinitely, but we still manage to hold onto our "hope to live" with our strong spirits.

Please close your eyes and put yourselves in our shoes just for a minute.

At this time, we have no other choice but to try and save ourselves.

We want to escape death, but this task feels impossible to do, as Governments shut down the Rafah border months ago, trapping the entire Palestinian population inside the Gaza strip. Now they are trying to move a population of over 2 million into a tiny corner of the Gaza Strip, treating us like a half dead crumbling ant colony. In addition, even if the border reopens, government agencies are charging high fees to exit and can’t even guarantee our safe exit. The process to exit can take many months. We are a family of 8 and it will cost us more than $30,000 just for the Hala passes to exit the Gaza strip from the Rafah/|Egypt border.

There are also rumors that The Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip will be expelled out of their lands forever, which ofcourse, would be the worse thing that could possibly happen to our family and all the Palestinians barely surviving this unbelievable existence we are in.

That is why I decided to start this fundraiser, over a year and a half ago, with my friend Giada, who is an organizer/producer and has manged many fundraisers before. We are a great team and I am sure that together, we will conquer our final fundraising goal :-)

I will use 100% of the funds to ensure safety for mine and my family's survival. I will aslo continue to support our community with survival needs in whatever form is possible during this terrifying never ending nightmare that is this conflict.

On a more positive note, now that it has been over a year, I have been able to accumulate a large following on instagram which has been essential to our gofundme campaign, enabling us to raise funds for our survival and rebuilding efforts. Instagram is my only way to record what is happening to us here in the Gaza Strip in real time and show the world the truth from my lens to your eyes.

To see the latest updates and archives, please head to my instagram accounts:

@NAHED_HAJJAJ99 &

@NAHED_HAJJAJ.05

(second account)

Please help me build a people to people network of support.

We're reaching out to our communities in a heartfelt and URGENT plea for your assistance. We are living through the worse of humanity and I don't even know how I am still alive and able to continue to document. I can only think it is God and my ancestors protecting me to do this important work.

Only together can we survive this painful time that is upon us.

We are so grateful for any support you can give, wether monetary or by spreading the word and forwarding this donation link to your friends and loved ones, we are grateful for whatever you can do to stand in solidarity with us. Following my instagram account is also very helpful. Engaging with my instagram account and sharing it far and wide is so important for me! Solidarity and Actions of love are everything right now.

Use your voice to tell our stories and spread our message. Use social media, your platforms, contacts and networks to keep our mission to survive, ALIVE.

Thank you for everything and

Blessings to all,

Nahed

@NAHED_HAJJAJ99

@NAHED_HAJJAJ.05

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A letter from the organizers and the mission:

Dear friends, family and strangers with big hearts,

My name is Giada Lubomirski (founder, Ecoshaker).

I have committed myself to helping journalist and dear friend Nahed Hajjaj to create a gofundme fundraiser.

For more than 10 years, I have dedicated my life to environmental justice and humanitarian work, projects, initiatives/causes and emergency relief fundraisers both locally and Internationally.

Although this is the first GOFUNDME campaign I set up for someone, I have produced dozens of successful fundraisers in the past, so I am hoping we will raise these funds ASAP, as each night that passes, each person without food, water and shelter is closer to death.

My friend from Gaza, photo journalist Nahed Hajjaj needs our most URGENT support.

I have been following Nahed's documentation of the destruction and devastation in Gaza since the beggining of this war and I urge you to follow his daily stories and posts, to see what is happening in real time/on the ground, but also to get to know him and his corageous work --and beautiful soul.

He is the bravest person I know and I am so honored to be able to help him at this most urgent of times in history.

Please follow his documentation on instagram.

At times, his instagram accounts get restricted and silenced, so any support in sharing his stories and posts/tags, is crucial to him and Gaza's survival at this late stage.

All that to say, this is definitely the most urgent fundraiser I have ever set up and really hope to succeed for Nahed's emergency goals, survival needs and re-building of their lives, once this is all over.

If you know me and see me doing this (whilst I am chronically sick with lyme disease and its co-infections), you know the situation is beyond dire and urgent. For me, it's a red alert emergency moment in time and history.

Like majority of Gaza, Nahed, his family, his friends and community are homeless right now because they keep getting displaced by the carpet bombings and forced 24 hr (or less) evacuation notices.

They are doing all they can to help one another.

My job is to help Nahed collect as many funds as possible, so he can SURVIVE this catastrophic humanitarian crisis with his loved ones. I cry everyday. I can't sleep because I can't belive the world has arrived to this type of brutality.

The fundraising goal will cover survival needs (whatever they can find at the moment, such as blankets, food, water, hygine products, emergency supplies, cooking supplies, tent supplies and much more etc...)--AND IN THE FUTURE---Cover the HIGH rebuilding fees to reconstruct his family homes and shop. If that can't happen for terrible reasons out of their control (continuation of war or forced ethnic cleansing), they will use these funds to survive and rebuild elsewhere. We obviously hope they will be able to rebuild on their land and property, as they are the righful property owners of their land in their homeland of Gaza, Palestine.

I find that helping people directly is the best way, as sadly the blockade on Palestinians has forced people like Nahed and many other thousands of people all over the Gaza strip, to starve in the streets drenched in heat; worst of all, in front of their own families, neighbors or strangers.

Together with Nahed, we will eventually turn this into a larger fundraiser to help this family and community rebuild in Gaza in the future . For now, we must help them and their communities stay alive and survive this brutal attack on humanity.

Let's do all we can to raise these emergency funds and don't forget to spread the word.

Stay tuned for updates and THANK YOU again so much !

MAY PEACE COME NOW!

All our love,

Giada and Nahed

PS: To follow our social media updates on this fundraiser, please follow mine and Nahed's instagram accounts :

@NAHED_HAJJAJ99

@NAHED_HAJJAJ.05

@ECOSHAKER