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gofundme.com

Help Loai W. family from Gaza safely reunite again, organized by Loai W Ahmed

Help Loai W. family from Gaza safely reunite again “This situation is … Loai W Ahmed needs your support for Help Loai W. family from Gaza sa

Dear friends,

Thank you so much to those of you who have supported and/or shared the story of my friend Loai, his family, and Gaza Plays Peace, the children's soccer program that he and his family run. The funds raised have helped the family and players with food, water, and shelter.

Above: Loai's family in Gaza: Mother, father, two brothers, two sisters, and three young nieces.

Until recently, Gaza Plays Peace operated out of Gaza City, but the Ahmed Family (including much of the GPP crew) has been displaced to Rafah. Their house in Gaza City has been destroyed. Some relatives and GPP players are still trapped in Gaza City and are unable to evacuate. I will update this post if that changes.

Above: the ruins of the Ahmed family home in Gaza City.

The Ahmed family's situation has become more dire, with children desperately needing medical care and nutrition that they cannot access in Rafah.

Every day these people live in fear that they might die at any moment because of the attacks being carried out on Rafah. Loai has set up this fundraiser to help his family evacuate.

Please donate if you are able. If you or your employer want to donate but require the donation to be tax-deductible, please reach out to me directly and I can help coordinate this. The GoFundMe is not tax-deductible at this time.

Loai has 9 family members he is trying to evacuate: 6 adults and 3 children. Travel agencies are willing to help families across the border for a price. Rates for evacuating adults are between $5000 and $7000 per adult, and rates for children under 12 are around $2500 per child. Including living and travel expenses immediately after evacuation and allowance for slight price increases, evacuating them will be around $60,000.

Loai gives more details (and photos, please look!) on his family members in the fundraiser itself, but here is a summary of the people we are trying to evacuate:

Loai's mother and father, Wesam and Eman

Loai's adult brother, Mohammed (coach of Gaza Plays Peace, pictured with players here in Summer 2023)

Loai's adult sisters, Reham and Elman

Loai's teenage brother, Omar (striker on GPP's first generation team--he is not a young child and would be charged the adult price for crossing)

Loai's 3 young nieces, Rafeef, Ayla, and Aylool (these three young girls, aged 5, 3, and 3, all need nutrition and medical care.) Rafeef played on the GPP junior team in 2023.

Please donate if you are able, and please share.

Thank you <3

10 children a day lose their limbs in Gaza. All hospitals in Gaza are basically barely functioning and the amputations are done in unsanitary conditions and without anesthesia

NOW: Palestine solidarity activists hold a vigil outside the Israeli embassy in Washington DC where 25 year-old U.S. airman Aaron Bushnell took his own life by self-immolation to call for an end to Israel’s genocide in Gaza

I'm never forgetting the Palestinian babies that were left to starve to death then rot in their beds by the IOF.

I'm never forgetting the Palestinian doctors surrounded by bodies of dead children begging the world to stop the slaughter.

I'm never forgetting the Palestinian children who held a press conference in English to beg the world to stop murdering them because they want to live.

I'm never forgetting the Palestinian Priest who said "We will not accept your apology after the genocide" to the world.

I'm never forgetting the Palestinian Imam who used the speakers of the Mosque, not to call people to prayer but to call out to God while the world around them was burning from American supplied Israeli bombs.

I'm never forgetting the grandfather who held his dead grandchild in his arms. Or the father carrying the remains of his two children in plastic shopping bags. Or the mother holding her dead child in a shroud. Or the father sitting among the rubble after he lost his whole family. Or the girl trapped under a broken building begging for people to save her family first. Or the boy who cried when he saw his brother alive. Or the girl who asked if she was still alive after being pulled from the rubble. Or the boy who carried the remains of his brother in his backpack. Or the old man the IOF used for a photoshoot before they shot him dead after getting pictures. Or the little boy wearing plastic gloves to pick up the remains of his family. Or the graves desecrated. Or the body of that small baby girl left alone in a tent because no one knew who she was or if her family was alive, small and alone and not one person who knew her name to bury her. Or the young boy who was shot in the street while his sister watched from the window. Or the men and boys who were stripped naked in winter. Or those tortured. Or those made to stand in open graves. Or the people who were raped by IOF soldiers. Or Palestinian workers kidnapped by the IOF and then labeled with wristbands, each one reduced to a number, then made to walk back to Gaza to be killed in the world's largest open air concentration camp. Or the people of Gaza starving because Israeli Zionists are blocking aid trucks. Or the Israelis dancing and celebrating the death of Palestinians. Or the lies spread by Zionists and their supporters. Or the people profiting off the oppression and deaths of Palestinians. Or the people of the West Bank being killed or kidnapped by the IOF. Or old woman who was older than the creation of the terror state of "Israel" who was shot by snipers for saying that. Or the Israelis dressed up as Palestinians to enter a hospital and kill three Palestinians in their beds. Or every single Palestinian currently kept in an Israeli prison. Or the journalists, doctors, poets, men, women, children, and the unborn all massacred. Or the fact that WCNSF exists now. Or the woman who refused to wash the blood from her hands. Or the dead, unburied and unmourned.

I'm never forgetting those who chose silence in the face of a genocide.

I may not know all their names but I will not forget the over 30,000 Palestinians dead. Or the over 60, 000 people hurt. Or the unknown number of people missing, still lost under the rubble. Or the 12,000 children slaughtered. An entire generation crippled or murdered.

I will never forget these things when Palestine is free.