URGENT EVACUATE: help save Ibrahim's parents.

Hi, I'm reaching out to you with great urgency and desperation. I'm Ibrahim Massri, a 29-year-old native of Gaza. Beit Hanoun, I'm a survivor of Gaza’s previous wars. My educational journey led me to specialize in English language and teaching methods at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza. Currently, I sustain myself as a private English language tutor and freelancer. Amid the complexities of life, I find joy in its simple pleasures.

Since completing my university studies, I devoted myself to self-improvement, volunteered to assist high school students, and dedicating four years to teaching English to children.

My enduring aspiration has consistently been to secure a scholarship abroad, enabling me to pursue advanced studies and fulfill my dream of becoming a proficient English language translator and lecturer. Regrettably, this goal has remained elusive thus far.

However, the course of my life dramatically changed on October 8, 2023, when Israeli occupation forces forced my family to evacuate our home and move to the south of the Gaza Strip. The ultimate blow struck on November 27, 2023, as I woke up to the gut-wrenching news of our house being demolished, leaving in its wake the remnants of my teaching center and the promise of a new home. At that moment, my sanctuary became a pile of rubble, taking with it not just my dreams but the very core of my existence.

Now, after five months of this dreadful war, I feel helpless as my parents endures hardships, facing illness and death. The situation has grown increasingly urgent, and I'm reaching out for your help to raise funds for the emergency evacuation of them.

I have a beautiful family. My father Jamal, 67, my mother Amal, 59, along with my four sisters, Aya, Shatha, Shahad, and Raghad, and my two brothers, Ahmed, Mohammad, and their small families. Each of my brothers has three children, but they live independently.

My parent's in urgent need of evacuation. My honest father suffers from Hypertension and my mother suffers from chronic heart disease. Medication in Gaza is nearly obsolete, limited and expensive. My parents are suffering in every way imaginable. There is no medical treatment. The hospitals are crowded with patients and there is no space available. Seeing them suffer like this and break down in front of me is the most painful experience for me.

My lovely parents:

So we have made a hard decision to evacuate my family outside Gaza, and it was a very hard decision for us, but it was the right thing to do. This is a real struggle no human being should experience!

Despite that, from the first days we are experiencing the war without a source of income, with very high prices of resources, food, and medicines, their scarcity, and the spread of diseases and epidemics.

Gaza has been a land of continuous wars. Everytime the conflict restart, we would lose our home and rebuild it, and always tried to keep on going no matter what, but this war took everything from us. It's painful to say that we lost everything. But yes we did! We lost our beautiful home with all its memories, which I had built my apartment on and furnished just 40 days before the war, which cost me about $23,000 to build, after five years of hard work. My dream was simple; to have a great future where I can start a small family. I also lost my teaching center, which was on the first floor of our house. Even my siblings' houses were also destroyed. Everything is now gone forever, our business, life, memories and dreams. Ever since the war began, horrible events have been recurring, events that no one can handle. We were forcibly displaced more than eleven times trying to escape death.

Our destroyed house:

My apartment on it:

Yet our hearts remain warm and our souls pure, we search for hope and live on the memories that we wish would come back.

We are facing horrific events and scary scenes which are difficult to describe. My mother and my youngest sister, Raghad, are survivors of the Nusseirat Market Massacre. Raghad, 14 years old, and my mother miraculously survived death. Raghad's in need of therapy and medical attention after witnessing the dismembered bodies and severed limbs around her. My mother, too, lost three of her siblings, and her family home is now replaced by a deep hole in the ground.

On the twenty first day of the war, when we were displaced in the Nusseirat Camp in the middle of Gaza, the Israeli occupation began a ground operation in the camp. The bombing intensified, and we began to hear the clashes. They were close, we could hear them all the time, and the sounds of raining bombs and tanks made our ears bleed in pain. The house next to us was bombed. My father was suffering from dyspnea. He had a crisis, and the smell of the missile and the bombing caused him to suffocate. We lived through the most frightening days of our lives.

However, we are now living in a much worse situation since 134 days in an environment filled with the spread of diseases and epidemics, such as Hepatitis, in the shelters for displaced persons affiliated with UNRWA in the Rafah Camp. After 160 days of war, the Israeli occupation now threatens to launch a ground military operation in the Rafah Camp. It's as if the nightmare of death is racing against the pandemic monster.

Our Camp:

We also suffer from the absence of drinkable water, facing difficulties in obtaining it despite its contamination. The ongoing lack of electricity and gas since the beginning of the war has forced us to resort to primitive methods for cooking and food preparation. In this catastrophic situation, unfortunately, the responsibility for our daily sustenance falls entirely on my shoulders, since we were forcibly displaced from our home until this moment. I am responsible for providing water, necessary medications, food, and firewood, which serves as fuel for cooking. On another note, at times, I joined the team responsible for entertaining children in the camp. We aimed to bring smiles and hope to those who deserved it, but behind the smiles, my heart was saddened for all that we lost. I always embrace my sisters and my siblings' children and provide them with whatever I can if the opportunity arises. a tremendous and exhausting responsibility that I am still trying to live up to.

Me with my siblings' children on 77 day of the war in the camp:

In the face of days filled with pain and sadness, a profound ache will linger for a while. Yet, we will not surrender to despair, nor abandon our homeland. We will rebuild everything we have lost and turn hope into a path for a more beautiful life, for we deserve to live with love and peace.

With your support and generosity, we aim to raise a target amount of £52,000. The funds will be allocated for the following purposes:

- Permits and crossing fees required to leave Gaza at the Egypt-Gaza border in Rafah ($5,500 per person for 7 people). I’ve been in contact with people in Egypt who are trying to help, so this is especially urgent. Your generous donation is needed to complete the process.

- Clothes and travel necessities from Egypt after crossing the border ($4,500).

- Living expenses including rent, utilities, and other costs in Egypt ($7,500). The contract will cover 6 months of rent at $450 per month, in addition to ($6,500) for insurance. Further expenses will cover furnishing the apartment and daily expenses.

My dear friends, this is urgent and critical, but this is not an obligation, no one is taking advantage of you emotionally for your support. We don't use our people to get your sympathy. We are just stating our own true personal story, hoping and believing in your support.

Ibrahim,