Help me evacuate my family in Gaza into safety.

With a heart full of sadness, I have to begin this fundraiser. I have exhausted all solutions trying to evacuate my family in Gaza.

I am Hamdi, a nurse who has been living in Belgium for a year. I am currently learning Dutch in a pursuit to find work as a nurse. I was happy living in this lovely community. However, my life has turned upside down since the 7th of October. Gaza has lost thousands of innocent civilians, including family members and friends.

All of my immediate family members are still in Gaza; my dad, my mom, and my brother Hani and his family (+his wife and 2 children), my sister Amani (+her husband and 4 children),my brother Majd (+his pregnant wife and 1 child), and my brother Mazen.

On the first days of the war, my family was able to evacuate the house before it was attacked by Israeli forces. They were displaced to my sister’s house in Khan Yonunis. Shortly after that, they were asked to evacuate again, and they were displaced to the Southern border separating Gaza and Egypt.

Since then, they have been living in a tent with no electricity or bathrooms, and they suffer from a lack of food and a scarcity of clean water.

We received news that the neighborhood in which we live has become rubbles, including our home. The only pictures we have of the house are after the first bombing.

My family is mentally exhausted because of the difficult circumstances they live in every day and because we have lost many of my family members, including my uncle and four of my cousins.

I have a sister who lives in Egypt and we tried to submit more than one request to evacuate my family to Egypt, but to no avail.

To be able to evacuate my family to Egypt, they must pay a huge sum of money in exchange for a special permit from the Egyptian government, and this price increases every day. The last price we reached was 8,000 USD for an adult and 3,500 USD for children.

Despite this exploitation, it is the bitter reality that the people of the Gaza Strip are experiencing, and it is the only possible option at this moment. The funds will be sent to my family to facilitate their exit from Gaza. If their exit was not secured, the funds will be used to support my family to rebuild in Gaza.

With the intensity of the war increasing day by day, and for the safety of my family, I humbly request your assistance. Any contribution is appreciated.

Thank you so much and I appreciate your support and reading this.