
Help Mohannad’s family leave Gaza before it’slate
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Hello world, I am Mohannad
Please read this as if you were a member of your own family. Maybe your brother, or your son, or your friend, as if my family that is dying now is your family.
My name is Mohannad, a journalist from Gaza, an ambitious young man who was supposed to start his life after many years of fatigue and work in several fields and strive to achieve the dreams he worked for, but he found himself losing everything he owned, including his family’s home and the homes of his brothers, in addition to His own project and the apartment in which he is preparing to get married, as well as the city in which he lives, make him lose any hope for a better future that he aspires to. After 4 full years of study and training and 8 more years of work and fatigue, the war had another idea.
Since the war on Gaza began, it has lost almost everything
On October 13 of last year, just one week after the war began, my family's home was bombed with them inside, and in one second, one missile was enough to end a whole life of memories and years of my life that I lived growing day after day in front of my brothers and among my family. This house where I grew up in an atmosphere full of love and warmth, in front of the laughter of my father, my sister Fidaa, and my brother Imad, they passed away.
This was a huge shock not only to me, but also to my mother, who also lost her sister (Etemad, her children, and her husband) in the blink of an eye. My mother who lost her husband (my father) 13 years ago when I was only 16 years old. She was in her early 40s and found herself with her own children to raise and care for, and now experiencing the grief she had suffered for 13 years, she was now grieving the loss of not just one person but 11 loved ones. She lost her sister, her husband, and their children. Her life was destroyed again in a worse way, and she did not forget that moment when they took her out from under the rubble, the rubble and dust filling her clothes, and they searched for the rest of my brothers, the girls, who were with her at that moment.
On October 22, my friend Khalil was martyred
My loss does not end here, because for us Gazans, death knocks on our door every day, and every new day under the war is the possibility of a new loss.
On November 17, 2023, I lost three more of my cousins from my father’s family along with their children and all the children who are still under the rubble until now. This shock, a month after losing our home and my mother’s sister and her children, was a huge slap in the face. It was a harsh reminder that death does not stop. And that none of us is an exception in this genocide, neither a woman nor a child. Each of us is a target for the machines of death above our heads.
This cycle of loss did not end here. After more than 5 displacements and having to leave the city to escape missiles and death, this war not only left us with tired hearts, but also without a place to stay.
The curse of war continued to haunt us day after day until January 13, just five days before my birthday, when I received news of the bombing of the tower that houses my restaurant and apartment, which I was preparing so that I could start married life, as well as the restaurant that was our source of livelihood. In addition to my work as a journalist.
I always gathered with my friends and all the journalists and brought joy to their hearts in my restaurant
The loss of life and property did not stop here. On February 15, 2024, there were reports that my sister’s house had been bombed, resulting in the death of her husband, Abdulaziz, and injury to her eye. She now lives without her husband and with her children.
I initially introduced myself as a journalist from Gaza with dreams, a young man in his late twenties who has professional plans and goals he wants to achieve, a person who has lost a lot in a short period of time. But in this war, I am the brother who sees the future of his brothers and sisters lost before his eyes, after the Israeli occupation army arrested my elder brother Mustafa and left his wife and six children under the responsibility of my mother. As I see, my sisters have not finished their university studies and are still young and are supposed to be in university. And my mother and brother, who found themselves forced to start from scratch when they were supposed to catch their breath and retire after raising their children and having a stable life, as I see them, made the task of saving myself my family or whoever was left alive, to save their future from all this and escape. from Gaza.
We have nothing left and my brother and his family are alive besides my mother, sisters and brothers from my entire extended family, and before I lose another one of them, I intend to evacuate my family of 27 members from Gaza:
* Me, my mother, my brothers (Muhammad, Maha, Samar, Aseel, Fathia, Alaa, Mustafa), my detained brother’s wife, and her children (Mahmoud, Jana, Muhammad, Anas, Imad)
My brother Muhammad’s wife and her children (Fidaa, Heba, Osama, Farah, Nour) as well as my sister Fathia’s children (Bayan, Haitham, Menna, Ahmed, Amir) and my other sister (Muhammad, Lynn, Alma, Abd)
The situation after almost 8 months of this genocide is that the Gaza borders are unfortunately still closed and no one can get out of them, of course unless you pay the largest amount of money to save your life and cross the Rafah border to get to Egypt. Crossing the Rafah border costs about $5,000 per... person, and as a family of 27 people, it seems impossible to afford the amount we have to pay just to get to Egypt.
So here's how the money will be spent:
* Paying approximately US$5,000 for each member of my family of 27 to cross the Rafah border and arrive safely in Egypt
* About $6,000 covers GoFundMe transaction fees (2.9% + $0.30 per transaction)
* The rest of the money will be for housing, food, etc. for a period of time in Egypt
Asking for your help is the only way I have to save my family's life and future. May your help become our hope when hope is far from us under these circumstances. Every dollar you can help may save a life, bring hope to the life of a tired heart and save the future of the youth.
Please don't read this story as a tragic story, I'm here to ask you to stop it from getting any more tragic and help us start our lives over. I am here to ask for your help not your sympathy, to ask you to take action whether by donating or by sharing this with everyone you know who can help, please read this with your heart and take action as if it were your family or your mom's family, your siblings living in these circumstances.
Organizer
Amani Al hashaikeh
Organizer
Charleston, SC