Displaced Israeli Family of 6

My Cousin Dagan, his wife Tal and their 4 beautiful girls (ages 14, 11, and 7 year old twins) have been displaced as a result of the terrorist attacks on October 7, 2023. They no longer have access to their home or their business operations. Their home is being used to house soldiers fighting in Gaza. Due to their displacement, they are behind on bills without any money coming in. They are in desperate need of money to help keep afloat. Any amount helps. Thank you in advance!

Here is Tal's story of the events that led to their displacement on that terrible day:

"On the morning of October 7th, we woke up to the "red color" alarms and unbelievably strong explosive sounds all around us, the house walls were shaking.. Dagan and I ran to our girls rooms in a frenzy, half carrying half dragging them as fast as we could to the Mamad (safety room). We tried putting on brave faces to calm the girls who were shaking and looking at us with fear in their eyes. We were not ready for this morning; they caught us completely off guard.

The WhatsApp groups went crazy.. We were ordered to stay in, lock all doors and remain quiet. We heard gun shots near and far and the explosions everywhere.. After a few minutes the electricity went out and the communication...

We decided to flee. My husband and 2 of my little girls have PTSD from past events and our Mamad door is broken. Seeing my husband starting to go into anxiety attack and understanding that if we stay it will become worse and worse … we had to go.

We packed whatever we could into a backpack, ran with the girls to the car and fled. The main road outside of the moshav was black with smoke and we saw missiles coming our way.. My husband saw this and broke the wheel to a side dirt road going through the fields.. Driving as fast as we could without stopping for anything.. We tried to keep the girls calm and played happy music in loud volume so they will not hear the explosions and the booms outside,. Looking back It was maybe foolish but we were so lucky and managed to get out before everything shut down completely.

We fled to the Arava, which is a town near Eilat. We came with almost nothing.. Leaving so quickly..

Dagan and I were born and raised in a Moshav in the Eshkol Regional Council, we got married there, raised our girls, it is our home. It was the first time I felt I have to run from our home to save our lives.

Dagan couldn’t sit still.. he was worried sick for his family that lived in Kibbutz Kissufim. Eventually when the day came, we were notified that they were all alive but shaken up. Saturday morning, we started to receive names of our friends and family that were murdered, friends of our little girls that are dead or kidnapped.. How can you tell a child that is classmate is dead? That her cousin was murdered, that her teacher is kidnapped in Gaza?

Dagan was drafted to the army as a reserve and went back to guard the Moshav– but from his past PTSD and the new trauma combined led to him collapsing and being hospitalized. He was evocated to the hospital with a acute trauma attack- he couldn’t communicate with us nor sleep or eat.. he was in the hospital for almost 3 weeks until they managed to stabilized him.. I could not even go to visit him.. My 4 girls (14,11,7,7,) and I were in the far south and I couldn’t leave them with no mother or father when all the world around them has fallen apart..

Today, Dagan is with us, in the Arava, BH. He is slowly getting better, but it will take a long time for him to recover and be able to function.. He still can't sleep, having intensive nightmares where he tries to rescue us from terrorists but can't.. Every day he needs to draw strength to get up and face the day and his family.. to force himself to smile to the girls, and to get out of the house.. Some days are good, some days are not…

Two months from that horrible Shabbat and our future in unclear. We can't go back to our home or office and we don’t know when we will be able to go back. Or how our life will be like when we do. Our beautiful and green home is used as a center for soldiers to refresh while they protect the area.

We own an Event business that sets up tents and tables for weddings, bar mitzvahs, etc. which we operate from our home. All business equipment is still back at our home which we cannot access.

We are staying in a B&B with other families from our area.. given shelter and food. We are refugees in our own land.

While Dagan is recovering, we do not know when he can work again or when our business will re-open.

We are in dire need of income to support our family which includes buying winter clothing for our girls, food for the table and other necessities. We need the help to pay the bills that are piling up including outstanding business loans.

Without help, we will be forced to take out additional loans to cover our expenses.. I don’t know how we will be able to pay them back.

With all that is going on it is still amazing to see our 4 girls cope with this new reality.. Each of them dealing with it in their own way.. True, they don’t fall asleep without me next to them, waking up from nightmares and constantly checking for terrorists under the bed and jumping from every loud noise- BUT they continue to smile and laugh and we are so grateful to G-D that we are all alive and safe.

About Me (the fundraiser), my name is Ariella Chukran. I live in Gaithersburg Maryland. The story you have read is about my cousin Dagan Chukran and his family located in Arava, Israel.

I will transfer the money from GoFundMe to Dagan and Tal via the money exchange app, Remitly.