Help Kariem's Family Survive Until Rafah Reopens

My name is Kariem Hassan, I am 27 years old and I am running this donation campaign on behalf of my family. The previous person who was helping us raise money to escape this war can no longer help us, but the war is raging on and we have to cover our living costs as we wait for the Rafah crossing to reopen. My immediate family has the following members: Our mother and father, me, 23-year-old Muhammad, and 18-year-old Nada. Our sister Suzan is married with two small children.

I am most worried about the physical and mental health of my 13-year-old little sister Dima who has been suffering from night terrors and other reactions to the bombings. She wants to share the following:

“Hello. This is our life and our pictures before the war, including my dear little cat which has been killed.

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On Saturday, “October 7,” at six-thirty in the morning, while I was preparing to go to school, we started hearing the sounds of missiles and explosions. I have not been able to go back to school, which I used to love so much, to this day. I became so afraid and anxious that I could not go to the bathroom without my mother.”

“Israel” has been waging a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, and the bombing has been crazy and indiscriminate. We thought that it would be a war similar to the many wars on Gaza before it: that it would end after two weeks or 10 days and we would return to our schools and our lives. Instead we have been so let down. On Friday, October 13, the Israeli army decided to invade Gaza City and the area in which my family and I live. My father decided that we would flee for our lives. We left behind our beautiful house, including its beautiful memories, our sentimental keepsakes, and clothes. We went to stay with our relatives in the city of Khan Yunis. The fear, anxiety, and tension continued to increase, and the bombing of planes and tank shells almost did not stop.

At the beginning of December, the Israeli army decided to invade the city of Khan Yunis. We decided again to flee. We feel the exhaustion at this deep in our souls. We went to the city of Rafah, where daily life was difficult. We were living in an unfinished apartment with our relatives who, like us, were displaced. The apartment was small and had 6 families living in it for a monthly rent of about 1000 USD, a huge sum for us here in Gaza as usually our salaries were around 1300 shekels. Life there was difficult, but we were patient and lived there for 5 months.

Before the Israeli army decided to invade the city of Rafah, for the third time, we were forced again to flee for our lives and return to the destroyed city of Khan Yunis, which after the bombings and destruction of basic infrastructure is not suitable for animals to live in. We are now guests of our relatives in a small room, where life is more difficult than you can imagine, without basic necessities, no electricity, no water, and not even the space for a mental break or some privacy. We can only wait for a solution to this hideous war.

My dear hardworking father never imagined that the day would come when we would be forced to appeal to people for money, but it seems that this campaign that we created is the only solution to get out to a safe place. We have been forced to dip into the evacuation cost savings and have lost 20,000 dollars of savings this way, over 5,000 of which we have been forced to give to money changers. When Rafah reopens, it will cost over 5,000 usd per person just to cross, and then we need to find a long-term place to stay afterwards. In the meantime, we need to pay rent to avoid the little ones and my sick mother from having to endure harsh tent living, and groceries and utilities continue to be extremely expensive.

We just attended our neighbor's funeral. He was killed while waiting in line for water by another desperate person who argued with him and has since fled. Everything is chaos and lawlessness.

Please help us start to recover what we have lost. We will have the money reach us as we did before, but it is a slow and expensive process with a lot of currency exchange loss.