Thousands of Palestinians turn to GoFundMe to help them get out of Gaza

Mariam Al Khateeb's life was turned upside down in the days that followed October 7. Israeli airstrikes destroyed the house in northern Gaza in which she and her family had lived all their lives. The 20-year old, her parents and three younger siblings were forced to flee southwards while bombs rained down around them.

The family moved into another home in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza – but that one was attacked as well. Again, the family fled, this time to a camp in Rafah. Two months later, they moved back to the partially damaged house in Nuseirat, where Al Khateeb's family now remain.

In March, Al Khateeb left Gaza for the Egyptian city of Kafr El-Shaikh. She had hoped to evacuate her family so that they could join her. But with the recent Israeli assault on Rafah, and with all borders closed indefinitely, she has no idea if or when her family will be able to leave the enclave.

Speaking to TRT World, the dentistry student said, "October 7th is the day when we went from being alive to dying. They killed our dreams, our families, our friends. I have lost more than 10 of my best friends. I lost my uncles. They targeted everything. It was worse than our worst nightmares."

Al Khateeb is now trying to evacuate her parents and siblings with the help of two friends in the Netherlands. They are hoping to raise money using the fundraising platform, GoFundMe. But it costs $5,000 to evacuate each person, and Al Khateeb is concerned that she won’t receive enough donations. Despite the ongoing onslaught, she intends to keep her page going.

Al Khateeb’s GoFundMe account is, according to the platform, one of more than 12,000 fundraisers that have been launched for Palestinians living in Gaza since October. So far, more than $77 million has been raised.

Getting support

Al Khateeb would likely not have been able to secure a GoFundMe account without the help of her European friends. The platform only operates in 19 countries. All of them, except for Mexico, are in Europe and North America.

This means that Palestinians must know someone in these countries who can start the fundraiser for them. The creator of the fundraiser then has the money transferred into their bank account and finally passes it on to the beneficiary.

So, while a few thousand Palestinians, at the most, have some small hope of getting their families out, more than a million have no choice but to await their fate, with little chance of leaving.

They do so in a strip of land 45 km long and 7 km wide, which continues to be bombarded, where more than 34,000 people have been killed - nearly 15,000 of them children- and where over 85 percent of the population has been displaced, many of whom are now living in makeshift tents.

Even those who do manage to secure GoFundMe accounts face numerous challenges. The platform conducts a stringent process of checks before it can approve any new accounts.

It says this is to ensure the funds reach the right people and do not become part of any money laundering processes or any activities linked with national security or terrorism. But in reality, this means any money raised can take a long time to reach the beneficiaries.

Al Khateeb’s sponsor told TRT World, "At one point there was a rumour that GoFundMe was freezing campaigns. When Simone and I did some cursory research, we saw that the company was doing a lot of due diligence. Initially, GoFundMe got back to us quite quickly, asking for the birthdates and names of everyone who would receive the money and for a step-by-step evacuation plan.”

Al Khateeb’s fundraiser has been cleared and she can now start raising the money, but according to her sponsor, the platform seems particularly concerned about how Palestinians get onto the evacuation list. At the moment, the only way to do so is through a Cairo-based company called Ya-Hala.

One stumbling block is transfering the money raised through GoFundMe into an Egyptian bank account. Some of the Dutch banks have frozen transfers to Egypt because they are concerned about whose hands the money gets into.

Al Khateeb said she will receive the money via international money transfer company Western Union. She will then go to the Ya-Hala offices and pay in cash to secure her family's exit, after which she will have to wait around one month before they can actually travel.

GoFundMe did not respond to a request for an interview from TRT World, but it stated on its website that it has seen a "significant increase" in fundraising for people in Gaza. It added that "our banks and payment partners require us to apply additional due diligence, which may result in longer wait times."

GoFundMe remains one of the few international fundraising platforms accessible to most people. It is trusted and easy to use, but Palestinians face other challenges.

Many challenges

Momen Moas Abo Salamia is a medical student and writer living in the city of Zagazig in Egypt. His parents, two brothers and two sisters are in Deir al Balah in central Gaza, where he was born.

They are living in a house which has had its windows and doors blasted off by Israeli bombing. A dozen of their relatives, whose homes were destroyed, are living with them.

Abo Salamia's 13-year-old sister, Malak, is disabled. She is partially sighted, walks with crutches and needs medical check-ups every month. But she hasn't seen a doctor since the war started and most of the hospitals were destroyed.

A friend in Canada set up a GoFundMe account for Abo Salamia, but so far he has only raised $600 of the $50,000 he needs.

Speaking to TRT World, he explained, "I can't always share my page because not everyone has a good internet connection. A lot of people I know don’t speak English, so can’t read what’s on it. Those who can donate need to understand how social media and internet platforms work. They also need to have a bank account. That’s why it’s been difficult for me."

The biggest challenge faced by Palestinians is the amount of money they need to raise. Before the war, Ya-Hala was charging between $200 and $750 per person. At one point after October 7, this went up to $12,000, but the amount now stands at $5,000.

The number of people allowed to leave is around 300 a day. Ya-Hala agents pick up the evacuees on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border. There is then a six-hour drive across the Sinai desert to Cairo, after which the evacuees are left to fend for themselves.

Al Khateeb has been able to continue with her studies, but some others, finding no work or accommodation, eventually end up returning to Gaza.

One Palestinian who used Ya-Hala's services and wished to remain anonymous told TRT World, "Ya-Hala is government-controlled. No one can cross the border between Gaza and Egypt without its services. It is marketed as a private company, but what would a private company be doing at a border crossing? It is the Egyptian intelligence. The car that drove me from Rafah to Cairo was full of people from the government."

He explained that the process involves a family member in Egypt going to the Ya-Hala office in Cairo and waiting in line, alongside hundreds of other people, sometimes for up to six hours.

He said they pay in cash and receive a ticket which includes the names and dates of birth of the people to be evacuated, but not the cost.

He added: "They don’t give you a specific date for the evacuation. It's a case of waiting. They publish a list of names online and at the Rafah crossing. You have to check every day. A lot of people have been scammed. They handed over the money but their families didn't leave Gaza. Imagine the fear and the anxiety we go through. But the bottom line is, if you don't have the money and the connections, you remain in Gaza and die."

Ya-Hala did not respond to any calls from TRT World.

Al Khateeb still holds on to the hope that once the Rafah assault ends, she will be able to get her family out.

She said, "The situation is awful. With the attack on Rafah, we feel we have entered a new stage of this genocide. Israel has attacked the Rafah crossing, so nothing can leave or enter Gaza. No one can leave. There is no safe area. There is nowhere to go.”

For now, Al Khateeb and others like her can only hope that the money they raise on their GoFundMe platforms will one day be used for what they were intended for: to save their families from starvation, homelessness or even death.