Please help my baby Ibrahim and my family to evacuate Gaza

My name is Victoria, a friend of Abdul who is currently trying to evacuate his family from Gaza. Unable to create a GoFundMe page in Palestine, Abdul asked me to create one on his behalf. This is his campaign.

Help Abdul and His Family Escape Gaza and Survive the Crisis

My name is Abdul Fattah Al-Bahiri and I am an Afro-Palestinian father of five, struggling to survive in Gaza amidst the escalating violence. My wife Nora, our newborn baby Ibrahim, and my four other children are facing unimaginable hardships every single day. With the escalating violence committed by Israel and its allies—not only against Gaza but also in Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, West Bank and the United Nations, we sadly cannot wait months to reach our goal. Every day, the scale and intensity of these attacks grow more unbearable.

Israel and its allies have committed yet more heinous crimes against humanity. We’ve all seen the harrowing images coming out of Jabalia Refugee Camp, Northern Gaza. For me and my family, it is not only images we see, we smell the air of death, we hear the panicked voices of our friends and family, these are all seared into our minds. What was once a place of refuge has become a concentration camp, a living nightmare for those trapped inside.

Supported by powerful allies, Israel has shown that it will continue to terrorize and kill the people of Gaza and ruthlessly target anyone who dares to speak against their actions. This is why, right now, my priority is the urgent evacuation of our family from Gaza to a place of safety. You might ask why we can’t simply stay on our land—but with the mounting genocide against our people, we first need to ensure our survival, all we see is continued and worsening violence. Every day, we are lucky to wake up alive, together and unmaimed. For months, many families like mine thought the attacks would end soon. We even campaigned to rebuild our homes.

As a proud ceramic and construction worker, I’ve always supported my family through my craft. My grandfather and entire family were displaced to Deir el-Balah, Gaza, from Hebron during the 1948 Nakba. Forced into a new home, craftsmen like me spent years helping to shape our community through my art and my skills. I have a deep connection to my work, ceramics, tiles and construction are a big part of Palestinian heritage. My hometown of Hebron has a more than 500-year-old history of ceramics and glass, my craft was a source of pride, identity, and survival for me and my family.

I love my home, loved the life we had built for ourselves and loved their community. We were a family, much like yours. My kids did well at school and I loved to go on romantic walks on the beach with my wife Nora. But since the war began, work has been impossible.

In 2022, the population of Gaza was estimated to be almost 2.3 million people, with Afro-Palestinian families like mine representing a mere 1% of that tiny figure. Many families like mine, have been here in Palestine since the 7th century, and with over 180 000 Gazans murdered since October 2023 alone, we are an endangered community. I have already lost many family members, brothers, and aunties, I cannot list them all and I even was detained by the IOF. It is urgent we live, just only if we are to exist as a people in this world.

Our life in Gaza before the war

Our life after the genocide began

I will be forever proud of my children

Before vs during the genocide: I do not recognise the person looking back at me

I stand strong as a father, but I cannot do this alone. The violence, scarcity of basic supplies, and relentless displacement have made life unbearable. We need your help—not just to survive in Gaza, but to evacuate and find safety for my family.

Where exactly will your donations go:

The Daily Struggle in Gaza:

Every time we move, we are forced to spend on transport, food, and basic supplies. I’ve always supported my family through my craft. But since the war began, work has been impossible. Our home was destroyed and after being detained by the IOF, my family's belongings were stripped from us. Like many, I’ve exhausted our savings just trying to provide the basics for my children—food, diapers, and formula for our newborn baby.

The constant displacement sometimes ordered many times a day is physically, mentally and financially draining. Less goods have been able to arrive in Gaza and shortages are worse than ever. This has made food, water, and basic medical items even more expensive and harder to find than a few months ago. Our baby needs formula and diapers, and our family needs safe shelter and food to survive each day and there is no end in sight to the suffering and shortages.

Postnatal care for Nora and care for 2-month-old Ibrahim:

With little hope of employment and escalation of violence against the Palestinian people, funds from campaigns like this really help me access some nutritious food for Nora who is two months postpartum and is nursing a two-month-old baby. My four other children, all aged under 12 also need this to ensure their health growth into adolescence and adulthood.

Unfortunately, nutritious food is difficult and expensive in Gaza. This disproportionately affects nursing mothers and in turn, babies as lack of nutritious food and stress means many nursing mothers struggle to produce enough milk for their babies. Many parents like me and Nora are forced to make difficult decisions, like feeding our child solid food, knowing it may hurt him or watching him starve knowing we just cannot afford or even find formula. Babies like Ibrahim's diet needs to be supplemented with formula and your donations really support this.

The Urgent Need to Safely Evacuate:

As Afro-Palestinians, we face extra challenges when migrating across the Sahara desert due to anti-Black racism in the region. Al Jazeera in September reported on the unofficial policies of some countries to dump Black refugees in the desert with no food, water or money, a violation of international law. My family and I urgently need to leave Gaza. We are raising funds not only to survive here but also to evacuate via the safest route I can provide for my family. as soon as possible.

There have been thousands of Black migrants who have died trying to evacuate by crossing the Sahara desert because of the illegal dumping of Black migrants in deserts by migration officials.

I would use the funds to enable my family to avoid making such a journey after everything we have been through. I have a 2-month-old baby and I cannot risk this route for my family, your donation will greatly support my evacuation via an alternative route.

Rebuilding Our Future:

Once we are out of Gaza, the donations will help us find safety, rebuild our lives, and provide for my family while I look for work to support them again.

Our baby Ibrahim

With violence spreading across the region, we know our time is running out. However, leaving requires significant financial resources, money for travel, safe accommodation, and the ability to start a new life somewhere we can finally find peace.

How You Can Help:

Every single donation, no matter how small, can make a huge impact. If 500 people donate just £1 each, that could help us buy food and basic supplies. £5 or £10 could bring us closer to funding our safe evacuation. Even if you cannot donate, sharing our story will help us reach people who can. You can follow me on Twitter - @AbdelFattah1312 and on our YouTube channel @AnAfroPalestinianFamilyStory

My family and I are holding onto hope, even in the face of such despair. I stand strong as a father, but I cannot do this alone. Please, help us find safety, give my children a future, and allow us to live without fear.

Our plea to you all is to not let this genocide desensitise you, let it activate you to demand for change; to demand accountability from your leaders; do demand power and say over how your government spends your taxes. Demand for your taxes to be spent on activities that affirm not only our lives but that of our planet too. Demand that our taxes are not spent on inventing, manufacturing and deploying machines of death and destruction.

We are living in a dystopian reality, watching the first live-streamed genocide, ever and it is all happening in real-time on social media. Whilst we watch what is happening in Gaza, remember that this is also happening in many countries across the globe, from Sudan to the Democratic Republic of Congo, to Haiti and Hawaii. Our campaign recognises and stands in solidarity with all those experiencing unjust violence and oppression.

We need to use our anger and energy to create a better world if not for us right now but for the future generations to come.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Your kindness can make the difference between life and death for us.

Donate today to help my family evacuate Gaza.