Help Me Evacuate My Family in Gaza Into Safety

It is with heavy heart I start this fundraising. I've exhausted all available solutions to evacuate my family who are in Gaza at this moment, the only option I have left is to start a fundraising which can help in this crisis and I'll explain why and how.

My name is Ahmad, I currently live and work in Cork, Ireland. I left Gaza about a year ago seeking work in cancer research in Ireland. I've been living happily among this beautiful and loving community ever since I stepped foot in the country. However, my life has been upside down since Oct 7th. Since that particular day, thousands of innocent lives have been lost in Gaza, including my own extended family members and friends.

As for this moment, all of my immediate family members are still in Gaza. My beloved father Hani 62yo, my beloved mother 56yo, my sister Haya 34yo and her husband Mohammed 38yo along with their 3 kids, Judi 9yo, Kenzi 8yo and Karim 3yo, my brother Abdallah 31yo and his wife Reem 26yo along with their child Hani Jr. 1yo, my brother Ibrahim 23yo and lastly my youngest sister Rania 18yo.

All of these are my immediate family members who are still trapped in Gaza, fearing for their lives every second, not knowing if they'll make it to the next day or not.

Just 10 days after the war erupted, my family managed to miraculously exit the house, which is in Northern Gaza, just a couple of minutes before the house was bombed the first time while they were just few metres away.

Since then, they evacuated to the south of Gaza in Khanyounes. They didn’t even have the minimum necessary requirements of living and suffered lack of food, scarce of clean water and complete cut off electricity. Then they were told to evacuate again, not knowing where to go and with no refuge.

With locals whispering news about which houses were completely destroyed in the north, we heard that our house and the whole neighbourhood was bombed again and levelled to the ground. The only photos we have of the house was after the first bombing.

While hearing this, my family was already mourning the death of my cousins in Gaza city.

My family are mentally drained due to the atrocious conditions they’re experiencing every single day. My brother Abdallah, a talented obstetrician who was awarded a scholarship to complete his studies in the UK 4 years back, returned to Gaza after he specialized in fetal medicine to serve his country and develop healthcare services. Now that Alshifa Hospital has been destroyed, he lost his job!

I've exhausted all available things I can think of, including contacting Taoiseach, TDs, other governments including the UK government, the U.S. Government, the Canadian government and the Australian government, but no one was able to give any tiny bit of hope.

The last resort is to leave Gaza with a special permission from the Egyptian government, it's a payment that has to be made from each individual to leave Gaza. They demand 8,000USD for each person. Despite how ugly and exploitive it might look, unfortunately this is the bitter reality we're facing, and it's the only possible option at this moment. The funds will be sent by me to my family in Gaza to facilitate their payments to travel from Gaza to Egypt through Rafah crossing.

With the situation becoming increasingly critical and dangerous, for the sake of my family's safety, and because it's a matter of life and death, I'm humbly asking everyone to help me evacuate my family, if they're able to.

Thank you very much, I do appreciate your time reading this and your support.

Ahmad