Help me evacuate my family from Gaza

Hello/Salam everyone,

I am Kamel Alagha, a Palestinian born and raised in Gaza, I have been living in Montreal, Canada for the past 5 years.

When I left Gaza 5 years ago, I said that I would never go back, and now more than ever I feel like I have betrayed myself and my family, and I want nothing but to be in Gaza with my family/. I left with the hope of bringing a better future for my family and my future kids. Now all I want is my family by my side.

I never thought of making a fundraiser, the notion of doing so -in my mind- was “god forbid”, and now I find myself helpless in the face of the atrocity that descended on us, I am reaching out to the faith in humanity to help me reunite with my family, and giving them a safe path out of Gaza as they are in Khan Younes Mawasi area.

My family including my elderly parents, my brother, my sister, and her family, and my sister-in-law and her son, are currently trapped in the genocide, and we desperately need your help to get them to save them from the horrors of war.

Meet my family:

My father Adnan, a 73-year-old retired pediatrician said, “I will never leave my home, destiny is going to follow us wherever we are, why would we fear?” has dedicated his life to helping patients at Nasser Hospital where he was the head of the pediatric department, after his retirement he decided he was still able to work so he volunteered at a community clinic for 3 years, unfortunately, My father was forced out of our home and now taking refuge along with my family and 40 other people.

My mother, Dr.Abeer, or Aboura as we like to call her, is the most worrisome sweet human being who gets upset when she makes an overcooked maqlouba dish. My mother always had the job of worrying about us, our well-being, our studies, our jobs, and our success. I can still hear her prayers to me when I was leaving Gaza, wishing me success and happiness, I could hear her cry when I was getting married thousands of miles away from home.

My sister-in-law left her husband in Turkey and went to Gaza to give birth to Adnan on September 19th and was scheduled to go back to Turkey on October 11th, now Adnan Jr is 5 months old and his father is yet to hold him in his hands.

Dr.Ahmad, my youngest sibling, the most spoiled, my comrade and partner in laughter. Ahmed holds a special place in my heart as we shared the same room and got beaten with the same flip-flop. We shared our secrets and hid each other’s dirty laundry. When Ahmed left Gaza to study medicine, I felt like I lost a piece of my heart. Ahmed graduated from medical school in 2021 and returned to Gaza in 2022.

He finished his residency in Nasser Hospital in 2023 and started preparing to take the “PLAB” which is the British Board for Medicine. His dreams are bigger than this universe. On October 7th Ahmed rushed to Nasser Hospital and volunteered as an emergency room doctor where he helped save lives and achieve miracles. He called me on the 4th week of the genocide and started describing what he had seen and it was for the very first time in my life I heard Ahmed cry, his heart was bleeding with pain from the atrocities he’d seen, he was also crying because there are procedures that he couldn’t perform as he’s still a fresh graduate “how to chest intubate” patients.

2 weeks later called and said could finally do it as he bore himself to train on the bodies of dead people to save others. Ahmed had to evacuate and now is taking refuge along with my family where he helps the refugees in the area with infections, diseases, and minor injuries using no medical equipment at all. His dream is to carry on the path to becoming a top heart surgeon.

The greatest sister of all time; Haya, was the source of all my A’s at university as I stole her assignments, and I was never caught. Haya holds a special place in my heart as she’s my role model. She always managed to give me motivation and brush off any fears that I had, and I would always think to myself “god, what a mighty woman she is” Haya, graduated with honors, worked as a lecturer at UNRWA’s KYTC then got married, while being pregnant she landed a job in a male-dominated area, had 2 kids, and accomplished a masters degree while simultaneously working hard where she was promoted to the head of international relations at the municipality of Khanyoues.

Haya is a strong independent Gazawi Palestinian mom who makes me proud to be her brother. Haya’s dream is to carry on the path of a Ph.D. in her area.

Finally, the souls of my soul, Salah & Ola -Haya’s kids- the sweetest munchkins on the face of this earth. I raised Salah for the first year of his life and now he’s 6, while I never saw Old. But Haya managed to keep us bonded, she would always send pictures, and videos and make video calls. Even get them toys and say those are from your uncle. Salah is known to be the sweet guy while Ola -4- is her brother’s protector as she would bully him but would never let anyone else do so.

Recently Ahmed told me that this all changed, Salah- after almost 5 months of war and isolation- turned aggressive and Ola became distant, the war has a toll and cost.

Now that you met my family and know their stories, help me help them.

Mai

Recently the Canadian government has announced a new special measures temporary residence visa program for extended family members in Gaza of Canadian Citizens. I am starting this GoFundMe campaign to raise funds that will be used only to help my family exist in Gaza., once in Egypt we can manage.

All I need is help in paying the fees to leave Gaza (5500 USD 7550 CAD per adult, 3000 USD = 4100 CAD per child) in addition to GoFundMe in addition to the ticket from Cairo to Montreal as well as a small resettlement fee.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read our story. Every donation, whether big or small matters and will bring me one step closer to reuniting our family and bringing the children to safety.