Hello my name is Fedaa Hammad and I am a newly wed woman. I used to live near my parent’s house in Gaza city. Unfortunately, the war broke out and we were forced to evacuate our homes. We were told to move from our area in the north, to the central or southern part of the Gaza Strip. We were unsuccessful in doing that. We were blocked by the bombardment and the air strikes. So my mom decided we would move in with my grandparents and my uncle’s family in the old city of Gaza. We remained there for almost 3 months with constant shelling and no electricity and no internet. As you all know, no one has clean water and the food supply is almost nothing. We had no medicine for anyone in our family. It was even scary to go to the hospital because it was being surrounded. I kept wondering to myself, is this real ? Are we going to starve to death in 2023 and 2024 ? How could this be happening? My story is the story of 2.3 million people in Gaza. We are not alone. But I felt the need to tell my story to the world. After staying in my grandparents home with my uncle’s family got to dangerous, and with absolutely no water, not even toilet water. We decided to part ways. This broke up our family. Sadly ,this was the first break up of many break ups to come. My dad moved us ( my 2 young siblings and my mom as well as my husband ) to a relatives house in another part of the north, while my grandfather, grandmother, my uncle, my aunt, and 3 young cousins decided to go to Shifa Hospital to seek refuge. While at Shifa Hospital, the attack came and the hospital was surrounded and searched. Some people were allowed to leave, others were not. My grandfather and the rest of the family were allowed to leave, so they went back home to the old city in Gaza. They slept there the first night. While they slept a missle hit grandfather’s house in the middle of the night ! We lost grandfather, grandmother, my aunt , and the 3 cousins, only my uncle survived. That attack shattered my family forever! It took over 10 days to recover their bodies ( body parts ) from the rubble. My family did not even get a proper burial. So now not only are we surrounded in the north with no water, no food , no electricity, no medicine. But we lost half the family in that deadly attack. Now it is 5 months into the war. We made the painful decision to break up our family again. My husband and I decided to attempt to leave the north again and to try to go south to Rafah ( with the hopes of leaving to Egypt). My mom and dad and my 2 young siblings stayed behind because they feared the trip was going to be too dangerous, they were right ! My husband and I wanted to get to Rafah and start working on a way to organize a departure for my family, out of Gaza and into Egypt. But unfortunate, AGAIN , my family got broken up. While my husband and I walked down the main road headed south, we carried a white flag with us. The army did not care ! They shot at us ! I yelled please stop , we are civilians , we mean no harm , they did not care . As they approached, they searched us , insulted us, harassed us and then separated me from my husband. They took him across the street , made him undress down to his underwear, they tied his hands behind his back and blind folded his eyes and dragged him away to an unknown location ! For no reason at all. We don’t know anything about him. He was a day laborer, but like everyone else has not worked for 5 months ( since the start of the war). He is an innocent civilian. I am now stuck in the middle part of the Gaza Strip alone , with my husband gone ( I am not sure if I will ever see him again ) , my family is either dead or stuck up north where there is no food and water. These are the reasons I wanted to tell my story. I am urgently pleading for help. As of now it costs between $8,000 to $10,000 per person to cross over into Egypt. I am trying to get my family and myself out of here. It’s mom , dad , my 2 young siblings , and myself. We are asking anyone and everyone we know to try and get information about my husband , but unfortunately nothing yet ! Any excess funds will be used to purchase food and some kind of place to sleep once in Egypt. I am desperately seeking the help of good people around the world who believe in equality and justice for all. Respectfully, Fedaa Hammad