Helping My Neighbors in Northern Gaza

Hello All, my name is Sami A, I live in San Jose, CA, USA. Many of my friends and acquaintances in the US have been asking about how to directly help people in Gaza, especially in the north of Gaza Strip where food is scarce and prices are exorbitant. Many of them donated directly to me (see offline donations — and if you know me personally and know my phone number you can do the same via Zelle), and many of them asked for an online campaign to share with their friends.  I am launching this fundraiser primarily to help families in Beit Lahia and Jablaiya and other neighborhoods in Gaza city and northern Gaza. Many houses in our neighborhood were completely destroyed, the remaining ones were severely damaged (the cover photo is taken from my parents kitchen, overlooking the neighborhood behind our house). My family neighbors there are running out of money, food and clean water and need help. This is an attempt to lend them a helping hand in this time of crisis in Gaza.

First, let me start by saying that none of the funds I am raising here are to be used for my family. While my family house and those of my brothers and sisters were severely damaged, I am (Alhamdu-lel-Allah) able to take care of my immediate family and their needs from my own money.

I am raising money here to reach to a wider network of friends and supporters from around the US and the world, to help my neighbors and other families in northern Gaza in particular, the vast majority of them lost all their livelihood during the war, their houses are destroyed and they are either living near the ruins of their houses or in shelters at nearby schools.

My immediate plan to continue to help people in my neighborhood and surrounding is

a) Secure fresh-water tankers to come to the neighborhoods around us and provide drinking water to the families, the 3000-liter tanker costs around $100 - $150, the plan is to get a tanker to 3 or 4 neighborhoods, twice a week, the cost is about $1000-$1200/week.

b) My brother shopped around for a cow/calf, around 180-200Kg of meat, it will cost around $4000-$4500, plus rice and paying a local kitchen to prepare the meals, it will come close to $5000.

c) sourcing and distributing food packages (though food is very scarce in the north, especially flour), the packages available now in the north include some canned food, cooking oil, biscuits, dates and other non-perishable items. The cost of a food package is around $15. We are planning to get around 50-100 of those and distribute them every few days to the neighbors, this costs around $1000-$1500/week on average.

I encourage you to help and support this initiative with whatever you can. I will be providing frequent updates Insha Allah and verification that the help is getting there. Please message me if you need any info or verification. The help effort will be mostly facilitated by my brother who has been helping me distributing donations to the needy families around our neighborhood and neighboring areas.

The funds will be wired to my brother's bank account (bank of Palestine), and he will work with local money exchange places to withdraw cash (banks and ATMs are not available in the norther Gaza area), normally at a 3-5% fee.