My Great Bristol run for a Palestinian family.

Please read the story below, any donations will be going to this family.

Hello everyone,

We are Abed, Billie and Pia, based in the Netherlands and Australia. We are raising funds to support our Palestinian family, who are in Gaza. As many of you - our friends, family, and wider community - have contacted us to ask where to donate and how you can be of help, we have decided to start this fundraiser.

Abed is a Palestinian refugee who grew up in Gaza. In his lifetime, Abed has already become a refugee twice. Firstly, in Gaza when his whole family was forcibly displaced from their home (land now occupied by Israel), and a second time in Europe after having fled Gaza to Europe in 2016. The rest of Abed’s family – and by extension our own – have been unable to leave. They are still located in the Gaza Strip.

As Abed’s wife and sister-in-law, we (Billie and Pia) are helping to support by organising this fundraiser.

As you are aware, the situation in Palestine is catastrophic at this moment. Our family continues to face escalating horrors as the ongoing tirade of intense daily bombing and constant attacks on civilians in Gaza and the West Bank by Israel is not slowing down or stopping. It is a living hell and the situation is now beyond breaking point. More than 23,000 innocent civilians have already been killed, and thousands more are missing under the rubble. This number is significantly rising every day. As the UN Secretary-General António Guterres coined it: Gaza is ‘a graveyard for children’.

However, these numbers do not do justice to those who have been killed. They were not numbers, but humans … People with family, dreams, jobs, and hopes. People who were loved. This includes our family members.

On 31 October 2023, Abed’s brother, his wife, and their four small children (aged 2-12 years) were killed by an Israeli airstrike that hit their home. Their names were Samer, Lobna, Mohammed, Layan, Jad, and Zain. They were the kindest and most loving family. They were very close to each other, with sweet children who adored their parents and worked hard in school with the idea to achieve big dreams that would lead them out of Gaza. At the time when they were killed, they were in their home trying to find safety. They were innocent civilians. The news has devastated our family. This is added to by the fact that we have only been able to retrieve one of their bodies. The others remain under the rubble and despite the efforts of our family to search and dig for them with bare hands, it is currently impossible to reach them as there is no access to fuel or to tractor diggers which would be required to lift very heavy materials. There has been no time to properly grieve as the situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate and we remain fearful for our other family members who face great risk.

Abed’s family – like everyone in Gaza - are struggling every day to survive. They are facing an immediate threat to their lives as nowhere is safe in the Gaza strip. Not only do they face the threat of bombs, mortars and tanks, but they also face starvation, dehydration, hypothermia and heavy rain as it is winter, and the spread of serious infectious diseases and illnesses. This does not even begin to cover the fear, the trauma, anxiety and the constant stress that they are going through.

In truly unlivable conditions, the biggest priority right now is simple: survival.

Like many other families in Gaza, Abed’s family is now hosting other families who need urgent shelter. There are currently a total of 106 people living in their home. This includes Abed's parents, four of his siblings and their families, several cousins and their families, the extended family of the sibling’s spouses, and other friends. They have been forcibly displaced from the North of Gaza, Nuseirat Camp, Central Gaza, and Khan Younis, after their houses and neighbourhoods were bombed. All of them barely have any money or personal items after their homes were destroyed. They are beyond desperate, and they have nowhere to go.

Abed’s family is a normal family. They have no political affiliation. They are kind, have a strong sense of community, and most importantly they love life. They want to live like the rest of us, in safety and peace. We wish for the children in our extended family to grow up into adults with opportunity and happiness, not to have a life filled with trauma and pain.

We have been trying to stay in touch with Abed’s family every day to make sure they are still alive, but this has been extremely difficult with the internet blackouts and the electricity cut-off in Gaza by Israel. Over the last weeks, we have gone days without hearing from them. These moments are the hardest of all as it’s difficult not to think the worst.

We've been watching the unfolding horrors of the war and the extent of suffering with disbelief and fear. It is a surreal experience to watch those you love dearly go through something so unimaginable and to be watching it all from our phones and in the news. Abed especially is facing mental health issues due the helplessness and the horrors he is witnessing. Whilst grieving his brother's death and being far away from his family, he is forced to watch his family and friends live through hell and is unable to do anything to help them. For Abed, this has resurfaced many memories and past trauma.

Our highest priority at this moment is to help them survive this nightmare and to come out of this alive. We want to do our best to support them to access basic items they need for their survival (food, water, fuel, medical supplies). The money will be given directly to them. The cost of items have increased dramatically due to the lack of availability. For example, recently they were able to get their hands on some flour to make bread which cost approximately €60-80 euro for 10kg. This amount does not go far as it is used to support all the people that are currently sheltering with our family.

Our second priority is to secure an emergency exit visa for Abed’s youngest brother (who is the only one with a valid passport and able to travel at the moment). We are already underway with the visa process and hope to soon get his name on the exit list at the Rafah border so he can cross into Egypt. Once he is there, he will only have 72 hours and will need an expedited visa to fly out to join our family. Urgent funds are needed to pay for the visa application, travel costs, the exit at the Rafah border crossing (currently up to $10,000 USD per person), legal support, basic necessities, as well as support during this traumatic period of transition, both in the short and long term. In the long-term, he will need financial support to cover the cost of living, housing, medical treatment, mental health support and ongoing legal assistance. The visa we are hoping he will get does not allow him to work or earn an income, so financial support is absolutely necessary.

Considering the range of needs we are aiming to raise as much money as possible, which will be used to cover items like:

Basic living supplies (food, water, fuel/gas)

Women’s health products

Medical supplies

Travel costs

Expedited visa costs

Living expenses

Legal support fees (ongoing)

Psychological and healing support

Support to rebuild their community (if and when able)

We appreciate and are extremely grateful for your support. Any amount contributed will make a genuine difference to the safety, health, and survival of our family and their community.

Thank you for your support,

Abed, Billie, Pia and the rest of our family.