Help Basel and His Family Rebuild Their Lives in Gaza

Hello, my name is Basel Al-Ashhab, a Palestinian from Gaza, and I am writing to you today on behalf of myself and my family. I graduated from high school with an average of 85.6% and was studying Software Engineering. I loved developing mobile applications and had learned the programming languages Kotlin and Dart, with plans to study programming using Flutter. But on October 7th, all my dreams turned into nightmares.

We have lived through the worst days of our lives during this period, and we are still enduring them. We have experienced all kinds of suffering and injustice, witnessing our relatives being killed before our eyes. We could not sleep because of the terrifying sounds we heard every night, waiting for dawn in the hope that our suffering would end, but it continues. Most of the food we eat is unhealthy, and we have reached the point where we survive on just one meal a day due to the severe shortage of food supplies in Gaza.

Since the second week of the war, we were forced to leave our home under intense shelling and move to southern Gaza, where we have been living in tents ever since. We endure the harsh cold in winter and the extreme heat in summer. It is worth mentioning that my family relied on modest daily work before the war; I used to work with my brothers painting houses to support our family of 11 members.

My family consists of my older brother Osama (21 years old), myself (21 years old), my brother Hamza (18 years old), who dreamed of continuing his education and studying law, my brother Qasem (16 years old), my sister Tasneem (13 years old), my brother Anas (11 years old), and my sister Fatima (7 years old), who was deprived of continuing her kindergarten education. Finally, the twins Jana and Janan, who suffer from malnutrition and need nutritious food and milk.

Lastly, I would like to tell you about the suffering of the little twins, Jana and Janan, who embody innocence amidst conditions that even adults find unbearable. Since the beginning of the war, Jana and Janan go to bed each night scared, trembling from the unrelenting sounds of explosions, and wake up terrified by the shaking of the heavy shelling. Children their age usually spend their days playing and enjoying life, but the war has robbed them of those moments, making fear their constant companion.

Additionally, Jana and Janan suffer from severe malnutrition due to the shortage of food supplies in Gaza, making it difficult to provide them with healthy food and milk necessary for their proper growth. Children their age need adequate nutrition to build their bodies and fight off illnesses, but these harsh conditions have made this a distant dream. Seeing the twins suffer from hunger and illness breaks our hearts as a family, leaving us feeling helpless in providing them with their simplest rights as children.

I come to you today with a heart heavy with pain and hope, asking for your help in securing a safe and dignified life for them, ensuring they have enough food, peace, and a life free from fear.