As Israeli attacks on Gaza City escalate once again, your immediate financial support is desperately needed.

Gaza-born academic Shahd Abusalama and I are raising emergency funds for her extended family—both maternal and paternal—who, after nearly two years of enduring genocide, are now facing even more intense bombardment, forced displacement, and starvation. Shahd and other family members living outside Gaza have been sending all the resources they can to support their loved ones back home. But the need is overwhelming—and growing by the day. They cannot do this alone.

The following message is from Shahd:

“The atrocities are escalating in Gaza City, where most of my surviving family members are now sheltering, after being uprooted from our homes in Jabalia Refugee Camp.

My aunts, uncles, their children and grandchildren have been sending me distressing messages as Israeli forces systematically bomb high-rise buildings, aiming to force Gaza residents out. With no safe place to go and no means to leave, many remain trapped in areas under heavy bombardment.

Among them are my cousins—frontline journalists—who continue to report under life-threatening conditions while also caring for their displaced families. Other relatives have been displaced yet again due to the annihilation of northern and eastern Gaza, forced to crowd into already-overflowing shelters in Gaza City, unable to afford tents or the cost of evacuation to the south.

My immediate family and I have been doing all we can, sending whatever money we have despite our own financial vulnerability. But the situation is unbearable. I’ve received countless pleas for help from my relatives in Gaza, and I must respond to their immediate needs. Their safety, wellbeing, and survival are at stake.

I cannot do this alone. My extended family—like so many in Gaza—are suffering from systematic impoverishment, relentless destruction, and forced displacement. The cost of basic survival has skyrocketed. We need your help.

If you are able to donate, no matter how small, please do so now. Your support could save lives. We will be forever grateful.”

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More details about Shahd Abusalama's family story and our efforts:

My name is Madeleine Crean. I am a Canadian journalist based in London. I am fundraising for my friend's family, the Abusalamas, from Gaza.

A week after the genocide began, this multigenerational family of 6, including a toddler and a newborn, fled with tears their beloved home in Jabalia refugee camp amid criminal orders of forced displacement by the Israeli army to “head south,” warning that the area would come under heavy bombardment. The family have survived on contaminated water and scarce food, experienced close encounters with death, terrifying bombardments, and multiple displacements.

They have hundreds of family members, neighbours, loved ones, and friends. Several of their young cousins have been orphaned and are living a life no child should ever know. Their humble house by Gaza beach with all their belongings was bulldozed and erased - as have the homes of nearly all of their relatives. These are just a few of the losses that are too difficult for the human mind to compute.

Now the family are residing abroad in safety - but the horrors that occur at home continue to chase them, and the difficulties of immigration bureaucracy, learning a new language, finding steady work and housing are constant. However, with many of their family members, friends and neighbors remaining in Gaza - their priority is sending them support and taking whatever action possible to stop the genocide.