Help Ali, Rudaina, and baby Nasser Evacuate Gaza

Dear World,

My name is Nadim Bawalsa. I am a dual citizen of Jordan and the US, and a historian and published author working remotely as an editor for a US-based academic journal focusing on Palestine. I'm currently based in Amman, Jordan, taking care of my aging parents, following 17 years studying and teaching in the US. I'm creating this gofundme for my dear friends, Ali and Rudaina Abdel Wahab, and their beautiful two year-old son Nasser in the hopes that we can secure the funds to evacuate them from Gaza.

Baby Nasser on the left, and newlyweds Ali and Rudaina in their new home in Rimal, Gaza City, before October 7

Since October 10, 2023, Ali, Rudaina, and Nasser have been staying with Ali’s parents in the al-Maghazi neighborhood of central Gaza. Ali and Rudaina had been living in the now demolished neighborhood of Rimal, in Gaza City. A young and hardworking couple, Ali and Rudaina were engaged in 2017, put a down payment on their dream apartment in a residential quad in Rimal in 2018, and married one year later in 2019. Nasser was born in their new home in November 2021, but it was targeted in an airstrike in November 2023. Their apartment was rendered unlivable, with most of it demolished and the rest torched from the missile that struck the building. All of their belongings were reduced to ash.

Following a night of heavy bombardment of Rimal on October 9, Ali and Rudaina evacuated their home and took refuge with Ali’s parents in al-Maghazi, further south. Since October 10, they have been sheltering with both Ali and Rudaina’s extended families in the humble family home. Though they have not had electricity or fuel for three months, barely managing to secure diapers for Nasser let alone food and drinking water, the family are grateful that they have had it better than the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians sheltering in makeshift tent camps in the south of the enclave.

Ali, Rudaina, and Nasser’s home, on the fifth floor of this building in Rimal, Gaza City. December 2023

But as of the last week of December, Israeli airstrikes and ground incursions on central Gaza have increased, causing widespread destruction and the killing of hundreds in al-Maghazi and the adjacent refugee camps of Bureij and Nuseirat. On the morning of December 31, Ali sent me an audio message indicating that, after a night of heavy bombardment, he and his family will most likely need to evacuate along with thousands more from central Gaza:

“Good morning my friend, Nadim, I’m so sorry to keep troubling you. There’s a chance today, around 3 or 4pm, that we evacuate. After we ended our chat last night, around an hour later and until now, the airstrikes and artillery fire around us increased intensely and in the Maghazi camp where I’m staying. There’s also been a ground incursion. Houses are gone, entire families erased. New massacres. So, it looks like, and inshallah I’m wrong, that they will issue military orders for us to evacuate, because the situation has gotten really bad. There’s even shrapnel on the roof of the house, I’ll try to send you a picture. I just wanted to keep you updated and let you know that I might not have phone service during this time until I figure things out wherever we’re evacuated to, then I’ll update you again. I still don’t know where we’ll go, but likely Deir el-Balah. Sound good, habibi? I wish you a lovely morning.”

Ali works for an NGO in Gaza City. He is a sociologist and trained as a data analyst, so his different publications over the years that I have helped edit and publish have covered a range of topics. We met virtually in 2021 while I was working with Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network, as a commissioning editor, and where he is a member analyst. He submitted a brilliant piece about the social impacts of the triple threats on Gaza titled: “Gaza between Occupation, Division, and COVID-19: Confronting Total Collapse.” A year later, we commissioned him to write another piece for us on youth activism on social media platforms and the pursuit of self-determination. The piece, titled “Social Media, Self-Expression, and Self-Determination in Gaza,” has been shared on many platforms since.

Most recently, in November 2023, I had the honor of transcribing and translating Ali’s powerful thoughts on life, existence, and the future that he shared with me via WhatsApp audio messages while enduring the genocide. The piece, titled “On the Limits of Sumud in Genocide: A Message from Gaza,” is published on the main page of the Institute for Palestine Studies, where I now work as an editor. In the piece, Ali describes how no land, no nation, and no cause is worth the death and devastation they have been surviving in Gaza since October 7. In his own words:

"As I look at what's become of us — my wife and me, my parents, siblings, uncles, aunts, and cousins — and as I envision what more we may endure if we survive this, how could I not want to be anywhere but here? How could I not want to be anywhere that we Palestinians of Gaza can rebuild our homes, restore our family lines and communities, and give our children a chance at life?

This was on November 13. Six weeks have since passed, and what Ali and his family have lived through has only been more unbelievable and unspeakable.

Baby Nasser viewing the devastation on the street outside their building in Rimal, Gaza City, October 10.

Since first connecting virtually in 2021, my professional relationship with Ali quickly developed into a friendship and a brotherhood. A year later, he was awarded a fellowship through the US embassy to travel to the US for a month during July 2022. This was the first time Ali, 28 years old, had left Gaza, apart from two visits to the West Bank as a child before the 2007 siege. He came through Amman, Jordan, where I live, and we finally met in person. We laughed for hours.

Ali and Me in Amman, summer 2022.

Ali and Rudaina’s only wish is to secure Nasser’s future, and it has reached a point where evacuation is the only option. There is nothing to return to, Ali said, when the war ends. Unfortunately, the costs are exorbitant and change dramatically and unexpectedly by the day. Ali is being told to expect that, as Israel's grip on the south of Gaza intensifies in the coming days and weeks, the costs will continue to rise as the demand increases and the number of agents operating the evacuation routes drops.

As of late December, Ali was told the evacuation fee ranges between $8,000 and $10,000 per person, before processing and transport fees, and to expect that he and Rudaina would need to pay the higher end of the range since baby Nasser doesn't have a passport. Ali and Rudaina are therefore asking for $39,000 based on the following breakdown: an evacuation fee at the Egyptian border of $10,000 per person, plus a processing fee of $2,000 per person, $2,000 for transportation, and a 2.9% commission fee. These are estimates based on many sources Ali and I have researched both in Gaza and Egypt. Any amount raised beyond the total will be used to supplement Ali, Rudaina, and Nasser's lives as refugees in Egypt.

The goal is that, once we have raised as much funds as possible deposited into my US bank account, I would transfer the amount to Ali's bank account at the Bank of Palestine (recognized by US banks), which he can still access in Gaza. We have previously transferred Ali compensation for his publications with Al-Shabaka (a US-registered think tank), so we are confident that it works.

Your support would be greatly appreciated.

On behalf of Ali, Rudaina, and Nasser, we wish you a safe and peaceful new year.

Sincerely,

Nadim Bawalsa, PhD