Hello, I am Dania, I am 20 years old. I live in Gaza, specifically in the north. My family consists of 7 people: my father, Hussam, my mother, Nafin, my two brothers, Mohammed and Abdullah, and my grandfather and grandmother . I am here to share our story as a family in Gaza and how our lives have transformed and changed greatly during this fierce war that is still ongoing and we are still suffering from it, and I ask for help to save me and my family.

Unfortunately, we suffered a lot. Since the beginning of the war, the army asked us to leave for the south on foot, but because of my grandmother’s health condition and my sick grandfather’s, we were unable to escape and go anywhere, so we remained stuck in northern Gaza.

My grandfather Mohammed is 80 years old. He used to be a muezzin in the mosque, but with this war he became very sick and suffers from Alzheimer’s, high blood pressure, diabetes, and severe malnutrition because the army does not allow food and aid to enter the north. He became very sick and thin and needs treatment, and we cannot provide anything for him because there are no hospitals.

I am Dania, 20 years old, a graduate this year. A few months before the war, I loved my major and hoped that it would open a wide path for me towards a better tomorrow and that I would find a job that would befit those creations that I had always dreamed of applying on the ground, but unfortunately the war destroyed everything and there is no longer a city at all that I dream of rebuilding and developing. I was not lucky enough to obtain my university degree, and before my university was destroyed, I now dream of leaving this city full of destruction, devastation and war, in which life, food, water, electricity and the Internet have been cut off. I dream of completing what I started and staying outside those borders that restrict dreams and in which there are no minimum requirements for life, building myself and a future, the ability to work, support my family and help my parents.

My brother Abdullah, 18 years old, was unable to complete his secondary education, which he started with great enthusiasm and determination. He was thinking about how he would pass this difficult school year and take the first step to achieve his dream of becoming a lawyer, but suddenly he found his books burned and his school destroyed. He began to suffer from a difficult war year that destroyed his ambitions and extinguished his enthusiasm, replacing it with sadness, frustration and fear. He does not know what his fate will be in this city. He wants to live with his family and continue his educational career instead of suffering in providing food and the difficulty of obtaining water. All of this is beyond his capacity, and he deserves a better life.

My brother Mohammed, 22 years old, studied engineering, is ambitious and graduated this year as well. He was able to find a job shortly before the war and was very happy with this new place, but also like everyone in Gaza, happiness turned into sadness with this war, to the point that his workplace was leveled, and now he cannot continue his life, he cannot find a job, he cannot develop himself or save our family unless he gets support to move outside the borders of Gaza. Please, he needs you.

Finally, my mother and father, I feel helpless towards them all the time, and I hope that I can change this bitter reality and make them happy, as this war has filled them with sadness and they have lost everything they built 25 years ago, and they can no longer offer us what they used to offer before the war, and they still dream of providing a happy life, a quiet life for them and their children, a life full of peace, success and love away from massacres and war, and for them to be by our side supporting us, without fear and anxiety.

This is my story and my story with my family in the Gaza war, I hope to find support and help so that I can survive for myself and my family and travel and find a better life and a better future away from the sound of bombing and terrorism.

My words are a small gate that we open to your merciful hearts. I humbly and lovingly appeal to you to help us protect my family from the storms of life and continue searching for a safe haven. Do not be just witnesses; be part of our story, stand with us with kindness and mercy.