Help Nidaa and her family escape Gaza

Jen Finnegan Michaud is organizing this fundraiser.

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In 2016, through a friend who went on a medical mission to the besieged Gaza Strip, I became acquainted with the Ismael family who live in Deir el-Balah. They were a large family that included Jehad and Afaf, their son Ahmad, daughters Hanaa, Israa, Nidaa with her children Alma and Zeina, and Asmaa with her husband Muhammad and young children, Jory and Hassan.

Playing on Gaza beach

They worked to support themselves as a medical analysis specialist, English teacher, English translator, and a baker with an online cookie shop. I began sending aid packages to the family, including much needed medicines, vitamins, eyeglasses and personal needs items that they couldn't easily access due to the long siege that Gaza has lived under. Their son, Ahmad, was incredibly fluent in English and thus became my primary contact - and eventual friend - within the family.

Ahmad with his niece and nephew before the war

When the war started in October 2023, their lives changed forever. People fled the Israeli attacks in Northern Gaza and headed south towards Deir el-Balah and other towns; the Ismael family at one point had 35 displaced people sheltering in their home who had arrived only with what they could carry on their backs. Their jobs became obsolete, leaving them without income to support their family and the newcomers sheltering with them. The most basic necessities, food and water, became scarce and medical care almost non-existent. The markets have been empty of flour and other necessities. Ahmad spent hours searching for supplies, from market to market. Their electricity supply, which was harshly limited even before the war, became almost non-existent making it impossible to pump water from their well for drinking and cooking, to charge their phones or to simply have light. Eventually, the attacks moved southward to Deir el-Balah. The noise of nearby bombs, artillery attacks and overhead drones was constant. Ahmad's uncle's home was blown up, killing his cousin and maiming and burning his aunt. Another day he woke to the sound of a huge explosion only to find out that his friend's entire family had been killed. Worst of all, on December 31st, at the age of 26, Ahmad was killed by an Israeli strike while on his rooftop while filling water containers with his brother-in- law, Muhammad. Tragically, both of them died. Due to ongoing rocket and missile attacks, the family needed to evacuate their home. When the Israeli attacks moved towards southern Gaza, the family was able to return to their home. But now, besides living with the ongoing threat of nearby attacks (keeping in mind that Gaza is only 25 miles long, so the threat of attack is always close by), they also now live in fear that their home could collapse as the concrete walls of their home were compromised by the rocket attack that killed Ahmad and Mohamed.

The crumbling roof after the Israeli strike that killed Ahmad and Mohammad

Another damaged part of the home

A month before Ahmad was killed, he told me he wasn't afraid to die, that you "tend to lose all feelings and accept the possibility of death at any minute. I'm ok with that." But he said the thing killing him, was his fear for his family and their safety. Ahmad isn't here any longer to take care of his family, but in his honor, we can step in to help keep them safe. They desperately want to leave the devastation and destruction to escape to the safety of Egypt. Permits and crossing fees required to leave Gaza are between $5000-$6500 per person, slightly less for children. In addition, they need money to help sustain their new life in Egypt. While we can't stop the horrors we are seeing everyday on TV of the devastation and loss in Gaza, we can change the lives of the Ismael family who are surviving horrors we pray we never have to see ourselves. I want them to have a chance at enjoying the same peace, safety and hope that we enjoy each day. I want them to know they are not forgotten. Thank you for helping to change their lives!