Help me evacuate my family from Gaz@

UPDATE: please continue to support Shady in the new link we created :

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-shadys-family-escape-gazas-war

NOTE: conversion rate for donations

$5 USD = $100 MXN

I am Shady Mufeed Al-Areer from Gaza, 36 years old, a father of 3 kids, Amir (youngest), Mufeed, and Aoun (oldest), and husband to my wife Manar.

Gaza is in a severe humanitarian crisis and nowhere is safe from attack. Before this war started, I was working outside Gaza as a hotel worker to help cover the cost of rebuilding a home for my family, and since war started, I became separated from my family. I became the sole source of income for my wife, three kids, parents, and siblings and nieces and nephews.

In the ongoing war on Gaza, I have lost my house a second time, after I rebuilt it following its bombardment in the 2014 war, when I was a newlywed. We lived in a neighborhood called Shuja’iyya—a famous Gazan neighborhood of about 300,000 people known for their strength and courage. This neighborhood was heavily targeted in the 2014 war. Israeli soldiers were booby-trapping houses and buildings in the neighborhood. When that war ended, we went home, and found our home completely destroyed along with my uncles’ houses next to it.

My 5 cousins were under the rubble of the house. I was trying to rescue one of them, named Mohammed—his hand was severed from his body. This was one of the hardest days of my life. My house smelled of death everywhere, along with gunpowder. Everything I owned was shattered, including my memories. I cried on the rubble for hours.

Then I started looking for some memories, some remnants of pictures. I found my wedding bowtie. It brought me a smile when I was tired and having a bad day. I kept it in hope it would bring me luck. I kept the things I collected and the remnants of my memories and put them, with the fatigue of the years, in my new home. But my new home became ashes in this war. When the war ends, if I search for memories, will I find them? I don’t know. People there say they burned everything, and nothing was left of use. Most of the Gaza Strip is destroyed now. Where will we go after the war? In tents until when?

Before the current war, I would go to work in Haifa for a month or more at a time when my work request would get approved. I would come home bringing lots of gifts and toys for my children. After my first week of this work, my wife called me and told me that she was pregnant with our third child. When he was born, I wasn't with him—I was working in a far away city. I went to see him a week after he was born. I threw a party, gathered all my relatives and invited them to dinner. I stayed with them for a week but he was very young.

I went to work again and returned after two months. I was very happy. It was a beautiful week for me, my children, my wife, my mother and my father. We went to the zoo, the amusement park, restaurants, and the beach.

Then I went back to work…

I had about 35 days at work and was supposed to go home on Wednesday 10/4. The manager refused to give me leave and postponed it to Monday 10/9. The war started 10/7 and I couldn’t return to Gaza. My work started in the evening that day, so I left my room and went down to the hotel, but found some people attacking me. I had to go back to my room. I stayed in the room for seven days and was not allowed to leave it. After a week they told me I had to get out of there. It was nighttime.

It was very dangerous for me to leave the workplace because I would definitely get killed. So I started calling to find someone to rescue me and take me in his car to one of the cities under the authority(?). Everyone refused and let me down. I called my uncle, and his Jewish friend came and took me out of there and brought me to Ramallah. If I had left without him, they would have killed me, but he is a good Jew. I stayed here knowing no one.

My wife, children, and parents were displaced more than 7 times, currently in a refugee camp in the city of Deir al Balah. They are surrounded by the terrifying sounds and sights of bombing and death. Water is scarce due to the bombing of desalination plants and main tank. Food and other necessities have become very costly.

The children of the camp made a toy car for my son Amir, one you drag across the ground:

My son Mofeed tells me that he took two toys when they ran away from home at the start of this war, Spider-Man and Batman, and still keeps them. His grandfather gave him a bicycle because he was first in his class at school. He told me he was very happy with the bike—for only a week before this war came.

Aoun is very affectionate, young but affectionate. And also stubborn, like his mother haha. He wouldn’t leave me, always by my side, wanting to go with me everywhere. He used to sleep between his mother and me for a long time.

Amir—a prince I don’t know much about, and I miss him the most. The cover picture on this GoFundMe is the last time I saw him. He has a beautiful face. Amir made me happy. I remember the day my wife put him next to me while I was sleeping and he started playing with my face. I woke up with a wonderful smile.

I do not usually ask for help, but current circumstances force me to kindly ask you: please help me sustain my family’s needs and hopefully evacuate them from Gaza.

As a father and a husband, there is nothing I currently wish for except to have my children and wife escape death from war. This comes at high financial cost as the cost of fees to exit Gaza reached over 5,000 US dollars per person. If we can make the goal 45,000 US dollars so that I can evacuate my mother, father and sisters as well I would deeply appreciate it. Please help preserve our lives.

All we want is to live in peace. I don’t understand why we are not treated as humans.

Thank you everyone for donating and sharing.

Here are some before and after photos of the bombing to Shady’s home over the years