Help Maram Escape Gaza

Salam all,

My name is Maram Faraj, a-26-year old black woman living in the Gaza Strip. I have been reluctant to share my story as I am not the kind of person who seeks sympathy from people.

I have always been passionate about pursuing a Master’s degree in Human Rights in the USA or somewhere in Europe. After graduating from Al-Azhar university in Gaza, I worked and volunteered with many NGOs, including writing for We Are Not Numbers. We Are Not Numbers is a project funded by Euro-Med Human Rights for young Palestinians where we share the stories of our daily lives in English for western audiences to learn more about Palestinians, because we are, indeed, not just numbers. I have applied for many scholarships to pursue my dreams and aspirations of leaving my homeland in Gaza and starting a new chapter in my life. Yet, it all faded away when the 7th of October took place.

I had to flee my home at Al-Karam Towers on October 10th after the israeli forces bombed my house, destroying it entirely.

After losing our home, we had to move to my uncle’s house in Al-Mughraqa, where we spent 20 days full of horror and sorrow.

The same scenario repeated itself: the israeli forces again bombed and destroyed my uncle’s house. We, for the second time, had to run for our lives to my aunt’s house in the most densely populated refugee camp in Al-Maghazi where we stayed for more than 30 days. We found out we had lost everything, including our video game store, our car and our land, not to mention our friends and relatives.

In the early hours of January 4th, we woke up in my aunt's house to the severe sounds of explosions, gunfire and bombings. The Israeli army had besieged the entire refugee camp of Al-Maghazi. The sounds of the military tanks and bulldozers pierced our ears. They plowed through the lands and grounds next to my aunt’s house. At first, we thought it was just an israeli military operation and that they will eventually move back, but things got even worse. That day I realized nightmares were real. We put on our clothes and waited. My cousin was shocked when she heard male voices loudly speaking in Hebrew. In a blink of an eye, we started shouting, crying and even whining! We were certain it was the end. That we were going to be murdered. My aunt and uncles tried to calm us down, yet they failed.

In the afternoon, we received a call from an Israeli officer ordering us to leave the house within five minutes, or else they would bomb the house while we were still inside. We sank into a phase of panic and horror.

I was the fifth person to leave the house. A group of Israeli soldiers were pointing weapons at our heads! It was a living nightmare. If we moved one centimeter, they would shoot us.

They held us hostage for three hours while they detained my male relatives (including my father and brother). They humiliated and beat them in front of our eyes.

We know nothing about them till this day. The last time we heard from my detained relatives was a month ago when we found out they were outside of the Strip and were not together.

The last thing I remember was us running for our lives after an israeli lieutenant forcibly ordered us to move to Rafah, telling us we had two minutes! We had to hold our bags (the personal ones only) and run while the bombings and bullets were showering all around us. We had to walk 4 hours to arrive at a hospital in Deir El Balah where we spent the night since we had nowhere else to go.

The next day, we walked to Al-Mawasi area (it’s in the middle between Khan Younes and Rafah) where we spent two days in the streets until we figured out how to build a tent.

There are 70 members in my family in Rafah now, and we are divided into four tents (one of them is being used as a so-called bathroom).

Living in a tent is like hell. In the beginning, I tried to remain positive and think of the whole experience as if I was “camping“, but cold and illness made me realize how wrong I was. We spent days without eating or sleeping, and when we slept, it was on the floor which was full of mud, sand and insects.

I don’t want to go on living this way. I don’t want my mother, who suffers from heart disease and diabetes, and my nieces, one of whom suffers from Brain atrophy and Epilepsy, to witness my death. I am urgently asking for your help to leave Gaza and live as a normal person anywhere else. Egypt is demanding $5000 per person to allow us to leave through Rafah. I want to save my family from this horror. The only way I can do so is by raising money for my family and I, for hopes of a better future.

Your help is very important.

Costs:

Travel costs:

To travel to Egypt, we need $25,000;

$5000 for me

$5000 for my mother

$5000 for my father

$5000 for my brother

$5000 for my two nieces who are under 16 years old ($2500 per child)

Living costs:

To rent a furnished apartment for 6 months we need $1800

For clothes and personal necessities we need $1000 ($150 per person).

The remaining $200 will be used for emergencies.