Help Evacuate Our Beloved Friend Mohammad's Family

UPDATE: Thank you all so much for helping us reach our initial goal, allowing us to register Mohammad for passage into Egypt – we are waiting now for his name to show up on the exit lists, which we are hoping will happen within the coming week. Over the past month, while Mohammad has been waiting to cross Rafah, he and his family have come to the conclusion that in light of the continued bombing campaign on Rafah and the obstruction of food aid that is leading to mass starvation, they have no choice but to evacuate Gaza along with Mohammad. Mohammad’s mother is suffering from a lung infection and his father from a spinal injury. Even more urgently, his sister Doha is in her eighth month of pregnancy, suffering from anemia and severe malnutrition. We are terrified of her giving birth amid a collapsed non-functioning medical system, with no adequate care and under unrelenting bombing and warfare.

Mohammad and his family need $80,000 – an additional $61,000 beyond what we initially raised for Mohammad – to get to safety. With a ground offensive in Rafah looming, with bombing and starvation increasing by the day, and with Doha in her third trimester about to give birth, we are racing against time. If there’s anyone who can help us get there, it’s this incredible, passionate community.

Mohammad has four beautiful and brilliant younger sisters. The eldest, 25-year old Maha, was in the last month of her law internship, set to begin her career as a lawyer, when the war began. In her time in law school, she won both the “best student” scholarship and the Alfakhora scholarship.

Twenty-four-year-old Doha is a gifted architect. Like her older sister, she also won the “best student” scholarship during her bachelor’s degree, as well as Jordan’s prestigious Hani Algadomi Scholarship. Doha got married last year and is expecting her first child with her husband Ahmed, due in two months. Currently, Doha is suffering from severe anemia and malnutrition, and her only dream is to be able to bring her child into a world that is safe and peaceful. She and Ahmed need all of our help for their child to be born into freedom.

The two youngest sisters, Sara and Salwa, are still in school. Seventeen-year-old Sara is ambitious, adventurous, and simply loves life. She dreams of traveling the world, meeting new people everywhere she goes. She was in her final year of high school when the war began. Salwa, just 10 years old, loves music almost as much as her big brother loves her. In Mohammad’s own words, “she’s an awesome kid.”

This winter, Mohammad and his family lost their house, their health, and even their brothers’ graves. Their kind-hearted, devoted parents are now both too ill to move. Their only hope now is to leave their beloved home and begin a new life in safety and peace. We need your help to do this as quickly as possible, and every day we wait leads to a bigger chance of this war wreaking irrevertible damage on this family that we simply don’t want to imagine. We want to get them to safety, to start a new life all together, and we can only do this together, as a community. Thank you for being with us in this.

Doha, in her eight month of pregnancy, needs to be urgently evacuated before she gives birth

Ten-year-old Salwa dreams of a world where she can live in peace and safety

Original: Our dear friend, Mohammad Ziad, is a brilliant engineer from Khan Younis with a passion for poetry and a love of history. He has been offered a life-changing opportunity to work as a water treatment engineer at AquaBioTech Group in Malta, but he needs our help to make this happen.

Mohammad spent the last three years at Ben Gurion University and the Arava Institute, where he led environmental justice projects bridging Palestinian and Israeli communities and produced cutting edge research on wastewater treatment during his graduate studies. Last Winter, he returned at last to Khan Younis with a mission to build sustainable infrastructure in Gaza that would increase food security and access to clean drinking water for those in off-grid areas.

Mohammad’s dream was short-lived. Within months of his return, Israel’s brutal war campaign in Gaza began. Mohammad and his family were forced to flee on foot with nothing but the clothing on their backs after their home was destroyed in an airstrike. They made their way to Rafah, the last designated “safe zone” in Gaza, along with 1.7 million other internally displaced civilians.

Mohammad has become the sole provider for his 7-person family; both of his parents have fallen alarmingly sick due to the horrible conditions. His father has become paralyzed with a spinal disc injury, and his mother is fighting a debilitating lung infection. Of his four younger sisters, one is pregnant and another only eight years old. Mohammad wakes every morning before dawn, walks several kilometers in search of clean water for them, stands in line for five hours every day to bring food back to them, and then spends the remainder of the day scouring for firewood to keep them warm amidst the torrential rains of winter. He risks his life every time he ventures out, now that Rafah is no longer a safe zone and has become the recent target of Israeli bombing.

Despite the unimaginable challenge and uncertainty, Mohammed's spirit remains unbroken as he clings to the hope for a different future – which is possible, if we are able to get him to the engineering job that awaits him in Malta. In order to bring Mohammad and his family to safety and get them the urgent medical treatment they need, we need to raise $17,000 within the week. We are worried that should Israel begin a ground military campaign into Rafah as they have announced, the border will be completely closed indefinitely, and we are aiming to be able to help Mohammad evacuate before this happens. The money raised from this fundraiser will go directly to Mohammad’s visa expenses, relocation costs, and increasingly expensive Egyptian bureaucracy fees. All donations will be collected in the bank account of his friend Layla Gordon in New York, and transferred directly to Mohammad.

Those who have been lucky enough to know Mohammad personally know just how special of a person he is… his infectious laughter and his heart of gold are simply unforgettable. He has always been a pillar of strength for anyone who has needed him… Now, it’s our turn to support him.

Time is running out, and we need your help now to evacuate Mohammad from Rafah before it is too late. Every donation, no matter the size, will make a monumental difference in Mohammed’s journey toward safety.

Thank you for your kindness, generosity, and support,

Ellen, Kareem, Arielle, Nour, Barak, Odeliya, Diaa, Dor, and Layla