Hello, My name is Yousef Salah. I’m Palestinian from the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza, currently living in Bergen, Norway. I created this gofundme page to help my father, Mohammad Yousef Salah, and my siblings who all live in Gaza and are in dire need of support.(please note that one US dollar equals 11 Norwegian kroner). Your contribution will be deposited in my bank account in Norway and I will send it to my father to use for food, water, medicine and shelter . Please read my father's story below.
I am Mohammad Yousef Salah (Abu Emad). And this is my story.
I have been living with my family in the Jabalya Refugee camp in northern Gaza since I left my home in the village of Hlaikat in Palestine in 1948 to escape death and destruction. I was six years old when my childhood and my house were taken away from me. We became refugees in the Jabalya camp, enduring a life of poverty and deprivation, with no national identity. Despite this, I worked hard to build a family that creates a sense of peace and safety. I was fortunate to have a beloved wife who gave me eight children and big dreams. But fate deprived me and my children of her love when she died of cancer. The youngest of my children was not even two years old, in a place that has no safety net. I had to remarry but fate again struck me when my wife died of cancer too, leaving me with seven more children.
Despite the cruelty of fate and life, I was able to create a wonderful family; we loved each other and looked after each other. I supported them by working as a construction worker. With the help of my eldest son, I build our house brick by brick over many years. I was fortunate that all my children got married and had children of their own. I now have fifty grandchildren, all of whom lived in Jabalya refugee camp.
On October 8, 2023, war arrived. This war is relentless and does not discriminate between children, women, and the elderly. It separated me from half of my children and grandchildren, who were forced to escape the hell of the north to the hell of the south. They have been displaced three times. I with the other half refused to relive the displacement of the 1948 Nakba and stayed in the north, moving between houses and schools and tents, trying to stay alive (so far we have been displaced five times). We have escaped death dozens of times.The houses of eight of my daughters were destroyed for no reason, and one of them lost her young husband and in-laws when their neighbor’s house was bombed. I’ve lost many of my relatives and friends.
Our consolation was that my four-story house, where my male children live with their families, will be the haven for my daughters who lost their houses. But military jets thought otherwise. On May 12, 2024, tanks and planes reentered Jabalya and turned the camp, my house included, into a heap of rubble. The house was destroyed and with it our dreams and hopes and memories. My family has been scattered all over Gaza and I was separated from them now for ten long months. Terror and fear eat me up every minute of the day. I never imagined that my children and grandchildren will live the injustice, displacement, and fear that I experienced when I was displaced from my land in 1948.
I turn to you who are reading this because I do not know what else to do. We lost our house and our income. But we are not going anywhere. Leaving Gaza is not an option for me and my children. I am still trying to keep my family alive. We lack the necessities such as food and medicine. Any money you contribute will go towards feeding my family (more than sixty individuals), buying water and medicine, and other basic items we need to survive. Prices are astronomical (an egg carton is $80, a can of beans is $15, a tank to keep water in is $700, a battery to generate electricity is $1500).
I have not lost faith in humanity and still hope for a better future when this war ends. But no future is possible if we can’t survive this devastating present. Please help.
the house before
the house after
