Help My Family Escape War in Gaza

Hi, my name is Yoseph, and I'm fundraising to save my family from the ongoing violence and crisis in Gaza. My aunt Salwa (58), uncle Ahmad (63), and cousins Samar (29), Ibrahim (27), Salahaldin (21), and several others in my extended family were driven out from their home in Gaza City and initially fled to the courtyard at Al-Shifa Hospital. Once the hospital was attacked and besieged, they left for Khan Yunis. But once the fighting and bombardment intensified there, they fled to Rafah.

Given the pre-war economic challenges in Gaza, Ibrahim had just started his first career job a few months before the war; Samar worked as a nutritionist at a local center that was destroyed; and Salahaldin was a student at Al-Azhar University, which was also destroyed.

Our family had to flee without much of their belongings, carrying whatever they could in backpacks. Then, in early November, they learned that that their entire apartment building and the mosque nearby were flattened. The neighborhood is now unrecognizable.

Before:

After:

Given the electricity cuts and internet blackouts in Gaza, communication between our loved ones in Gaza and our family here in the United States is sporadic. When we do get in touch, the news is heartbreaking. The conditions in Gaza—which had already been under siege for 17 years—are increasingly dire.

Basic necessities are increasingly hard to come by. The lack of food, water, medicine, and bedding has taken a toll on everyone, especially my aunt Salwa. In addition to this, her adolescence and early adulthood were consumed by 15 years of war in Lebanon—a war in which Israel wreaked havoc. The physical, emotional, and mental toll that has come with decades of war cannot be put into words.

Our family in Gaza have been disconnected from the rest of us for too long. My father hasn't seen her since he emigrated from Lebanon in 1986. And she hasn’t seen any of her family members apart from her husband and kids since 1994. She's also been separated from her other son, Omar (23), who just graduated from medical school in Egypt. I myself have only ever spoken to her over text and phone call, but I long for all of us in the family to reunite.

Alhamdulilah, she is a survivor in every sense of the word. May Allah protect her and all of our loved ones in Palestine—all of whom serve as inspirations for us.