Help evacuate my family from Gaza

My name is Said Alyacoubi. I am a doctor currently working and living in the UK. I was born and raised in Gaza. I left Gaza in 2017 looking for a better life following many long years of living under siege and occupation.

I am starting this campaign to help my family leave Gaza.

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has launched what can only be described as the most horrific war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Over the last 5 months, more than 100,000 Palestinians have been killed or injured. Tens of thousands of homes have been destroyed. Infrastructures, schools, universities and hospitals have also been targeted. The whole of the Gaza Strip has been made uninhabitable by this genocidal war for many years to come.

My family, like the rest of Palestinians in the besieged enclave, has been living through a nightmare since October 2023. Only few weeks after this all started, my family has had to leave our home in Gaza City under the horrific bombardment of Israeli warplanes and the approaching Israeli tanks. They left to Khan Younis where they took shelter at my father-in-law's house. They stayed there until early December when Israel started its ground invasion of Khan Younis. At this point, my family has had to flee for their safety again, this time to Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip, under such indescribable horrors of bombing from air, sea and ground.

On the other hand, my sister, Noor, her husband, Mohammed, and their little girl, Lya, were not able to leave Gaza City due to a variety of reasons but most importantly the ruthless Israeli bombardment of the city at the time making it almost impossible for any one to move safely and the fact that there were literally no where safe to go to. Since then, they have been enduring the horrors of both war and hunger like the rest of the approximately half a million Palestinians still besieged in the city. In December, she too had to flee and move somewhere else in North Gaza as tanks were approaching her neighbourhood, only to find a few days later that her house was partially destroyed.

Thankfully, we had managed to get my mother, Mona, and youngest brother, Abdelrahman, out of Gaza to Egypt where they are temporarily staying at present. The rest of my family, which includes my father, Omar, and my oldest brother, Mohammed, and his wife, Hadeel, and their children (Omar, Maria and Mona) are still in Rafah. They all are staying in an open air land with only one room to fit them all. The harsh circumstances Palestinians in Rafah are currently enduring from the indiscriminate Israeli bombing every now and then to the daily struggle of trying to find food and water are no exception to my family.

My family has waited long enough for this to come to an end refusing to leave Gaza but till now there are no signs to suggest an end in sight with the war entering its sixth month making it the longest war Palestinians suffered since 1948. It was no easy decision for my father to leave our home in North Gaza in the first place and again in Khan Younis and he wouldn't have done so if the situation was not this horrifying. They have now been living under indescribable suffering for 5 months with no income and if the war ends tomorrow, there is no life left in Gaza for the unforeseeable future. Therefore, we have taken the decision heavy-heartedly that it is time for them to leave.

The money raised will be used to pay Egyptian Authorities to let them out of Gaza which has been the only system for evacuating Palestinians from Gaza (5000$ per adult and 2500$ per child).