Help Othman’s family in Gaza survive

In March 2023, we met Othman and his father, Abdel Fattah Nazmi Abd Rabou, a professor of environmental studies, at the Islamic University of Gaza. They hosted us very generously and showed us around the university campus, which was completely destroyed by Israeli bombings.

Desperate for safety, the family is trying to escape the relentless bombing, the appalling living conditions and the devastation around them. As Gazans cannot access GoFundMe campaigns themselves, the family reached out to ask for help to fundraise to get them out of Gaza.

This is their story

My name is Othman Abdel Fattah Abd Rabou. I am 28 years old and I hold a master's degree in journalism and media.

Before the war on Gaza, I was working in the field of media and communications, and despite the difficult conditions and the siege in Gaza, life was still good in many ways.

I bought an apartment in installments and planned to settle in it as soon as I got married. I was working on fixing it up before the war started. I had a good job, and I enjoyed going out to walk on the beach. Life was beautiful despite its simplicity. I used to meet friends in cafes, or on the beach. My family and I used to gather and share our thoughts and plans for the future. I had many hopes and ambitions.

But all that disappeared with the beginning of this brutal war on Gaza, which destroyed everything - my apartment in northern Gaza was destroyed, as was my brother Mohammed's house in Gaza. I lost my job and my love for life. We became homeless and hungry, we move from place to place, trying to escape death, but there is no safe place in Gaza.

As soon as the war started, my family and I planned to travel to Egypt so that we would not be harmed by this fierce war, but the travel expenses and coordination were not available to us. We launched a campaign on GoFundMe to gather the amount to travel to Egypt, but it didn’t happen.

On the night of August 27, 2024, I lost my older brother, Muhammad, a journalist and engineer, and my sister, Sumaya. May God have mercy on them. They were killed in the bombing of a residential apartment in Al-Nuseirat in the middle of the Gaza Strip, where they were displaced. The pain, sadness, and destruction are unbearable. My brother left behind his wife and young children who cried for him day and night, and who are now fatherless.

Othman (right) and his brother Mohammed (left)

We had planned to leave Gaza when the Rafah crossing opened, hoping to start over in a safe place. But now they are gone, and all that remains are memories. My family and I are left in a state of deep grief, struggling to cope with their absence.

Now, the challenges are increasing. There is no safe place, no shelter, no food - none of the basic necessities of life. We are living in a nightmare, facing an impossible reality. Words cannot describe what we are going through now.

We had many ambitions and dreams, but the war destroyed everything, yet I continue to strive to achieve them. I feel very ashamed to have to ask for help. But even a small donation would mean a lot to me, so I can save my life and what is left of my family. Every small donation can make a difference in our lives.

I belong to a refugee family from the village of Simsim, where my grandfather was forcibly displaced from as a child in 1948. Now, after 76 years, I’m experiencing the same suffering: forced displacement, ethnic cleansing, as well as scarcity of food, water and medicine. The bombings and continuous attacks have turned the houses into ruins, the streets into battlefields, dreams into ashes and light into darkness.

Before May, the only way out of Gaza was to pay exorbitant "coordination" fees to the Egyptian agency Hala, which charged approximately $5000 for adults and $2500 for children. But since Israeli forces invaded Rafah and closed the land crossing with Egypt, Palestinians haven’t been allowed to pass through. It is uncertain when the crossing will open again, but the family is still fundraising to pay the coordination fees, hoping they will be able to leave when the border opens again.

If the family is unable to leave Gaza, the donations will be used to support the family's basic needs and their attempts to rebuild their lives.

The funds will be received by HuBB - Humans Before Borders, a collective based in Portugal, and will be transferred directly to the Abd Rabou family.