Can you imagine looking into your children's eyes one day and seeing them filled with hunger, fear, and helplessness? Waking up to their cries of cold at night, with nothing but a hug to offer them, unable to protect them? I'm Hiba Al-Madhoun, a 33-year-old Palestinian mother living in northern Gaza. I come from a family of eight, and I live this nightmare every day with my family, my two young children, Adam, 8, and Muhammad, 6, and my husband, Hussein.

We had a simple home, full of love despite everything. But in a single moment, the bombing destroyed everything we owned. We watched our house crumble before our eyes and were forced to flee under a hail of bullets, carrying our children in our arms, searching for a place to take shelter. After a long and harrowing journey of displacement, filled with the stench of death, we sought refuge in a tattered tent in the Al-Mawasi area. It barely protected us from the cold winds and torrential rain.

This tent became our only shelter, but we suffer in unbearable conditions. It's infested with insects and diseases that cause numerous illnesses for us and my young children, whose frail and exhausted bodies are unable to withstand them. I am unable to provide even their most basic needs.

Our daily lives have become an endless struggle. To get water, we stand for hours in arduous queues, while hunger gnaws at our stomachs. We search for free food wherever we can find it, because food prices here have become unaffordable. My children cry from hunger, and I have nothing to give them but the meager scraps we manage to obtain with great difficulty.

Adam, my eight-year-old son, hides his small hand behind his back when he feels ashamed. He was born with webbed fingers and needs surgery that costs $5,000, an amount I cannot afford. He needs to experience a childhood like other children. Every time he looks at me and asks, "Mommy, when will I be like other children?" my heart breaks because I have no answer… and I can't afford the surgery.

The bitter cold of winter makes their little bodies shiver at night, and we don't have warm clothes to cover them. Milk has become a distant dream, and we ran out of diapers long ago. I can't forget their cries when the insects that infest the tent bite them, or their looks when I can't fill their little stomachs with anything to satisfy their hunger.

My husband, who was the pillar of the family, was injured in this conflict and can no longer work. The responsibility of keeping us alive now rests entirely on my shoulders, but how can a single mother in these circumstances provide for her children?

Today, I appeal to you from the bottom of my heart through this platform. We desperately need your help: the campaign's goal is to cover the following costs:

* Warm clothes and blankets for my children who are shivering from the cold.

* Healthy food and milk so my children can grow normally and overcome hunger.

• A new tent to protect us from the harsh weather and restore some sense of security.

* A small amount of financial support to secure essential water and food.

* My son Adam's surgery, which is breaking my heart.

* Travel to Egypt after the Rafah crossing opens to start a new life.

* Covering the costs of my husband's medical treatment.

Every donation, no matter how small, is a glimmer of hope for my exhausted family. Your humanity can save us from this hell. Help me give my children a new chance at life, a chance to smile again.

Donate to save my family and be the voice of mercy that reaches us in this darkness. Thank you to every generous heart.