Help my family evacuate from Gaza

Hello there, my name is Hanna, I’m based in London, and I am helping my cousin-in-law Ehab raise funds to evacuate his family from Gaza. Before you read on, you might be thinking "but I thought no one could leave Gaza! This must be a scam!" Let us explain. People who aren't Palestinian have been able to enter and exit Gaza. They do so by registering their name at the Rafah crossing - and then they wait until their name is on the list. Palestinians can do the same as other nationalities - but they need to pay. At the beginning of this latest round of violence in October, we have been informed by Ehab's family that the going rate was closer to $12,000 per person. There are intermediary agencies that sell the permits that Egypt issues - one of them is called Halla and this is the agency Ehab's family plan to use to evacuate if they receive the funds they need.

Hopefully this provides additional context for you as you consider supporting this family to reach some safety.

Here is Ehab's story:

Hello everyone, my name is Ehab. I am a Palestinian man and I was born in Gaza and left it at the age of 17.

I come here to ask you all to help me save my family who so far are surviving the destruction, who I have not seen since 2010. I am raising money to evacuate them to Egypt.

I never imagined I would ask for this because my family never thought of leaving Gaza despite all the wars and atrocities over the years and decades. We want to live on our land with our friends and family and community. But now it’s more terrifying and we are desperate.

I have just 11 family members who are left:

- My father, Khader, is an old diabetic paralysed man (80years old) and my mother, Nafissa. She will be a refugee a second time as she is from Yafa, and fled to Gaza in 1948

- My brother Mohammad and his wife Haneen

- My little brother Ahmed and his wife Aseel. They recently got married and built their house next to my family home but it got bombed and burned so they fled.

- My sister Ranna and her husband Amjad, and their three little children (two girls Kenzy and Larine, and a boy, Ahmed). They are really too young to experience the bombing and fear and hunger.

Our house that my Mum and Dad spent years building, a place that was home to sharing love and memories got burned, and our hearts burned with it as well.

I lost a lot of family members since the beginning of this most recent bombing of 2023.

- My cousin and her family of 20 members

- My aunt lost her only child after 7 miscarriages!

- I have lost so very many friends and my 3 childhood best friends too; people I was raised with and shared many memories.

The scale of my grief and other Gazans is incomprehensible. I can’t handle anymore loss especially my immediate family that I haven’t seen in such a long time.

My family ran away from the north, Al Nasr, to the south, Rafah, hoping for safety but nowhere is safe in Gaza! They are starving from hunger and suffering from cold and fear. They need to get out before it’s too late.

They do not want to leave their land and their community. They know they may never return. But they also want to live. I want them to live. This is a terrible choice to be coerced to make.

The cost to evacuate them is very high we can never afford ourselves, so we need your help please.

We need $5000 for each person just to let them cross the border, and after that they need the fees for health care, rent, food, and clothes for a few months because they have lost everything. Right now the priority is evacuating and just a further $5000 on top as support in the immediate weeks after crossing to support living while they find their feet in Egypt. The final amount is to cover fees on this platform. As such the total is $61,800, which is £48,700 in the currency Hanna can receive before distributing to them.

HOW CAN YOU HELP:

Please - your support could save their lives cause every minute there is a risk of death.

Please consider donating and even if you cannot donate just SHARE MY CAMPAIGN please with your friends, family and people you know ❤️ I really appreciate all your help … please help me save my family and see them again safe.

Thank you for your kindness during this hard time.

Gratefully,

Ehab