Urgent Financial Aid Needed For Evacuated/Evacuating Gazan Families
Help Dr. Hazem Almassry's family to cover basic necessities and Layla Mohammed's family to reunite with her in Egypt
Readers who have been following Palestine solidarity work in Taiwan since October 7th will probably be familiar with Dr. Hazem Almassry, a researcher with a Ph.D. in Inter-Asia Cultural Studies from National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University who lives in Taiwan with his wife and three children. Hazem is currently the only Gazan living in Taiwan who has been willing to speak publicly about the war. He has given extensive interviews for 中央廣播電臺 Radio Taiwan International (video here), 報導者 The Reporter, 三立新聞台 SET News Channel, Taiwan News, and Global Voices; he has also spoken publicly as a panelist on a New Bloom Mandarin language panel on Palestine last December, a dialogue panel with Israeli scholar Mor Sobol in March, and also at multiple peace rallies, protests, and die-ins in Taipei.
Hazem has been doing all of this work in the midst of immense grief. In December of last year, an Israeli airstrike destroyed his family home in Khan Younis, leaving his mother both crushed and conscious under the rubble. Due to Israel’s decimation of Gaza’s health infrastructure, medical rescue was not able to reach his mother in time.
This past weekend, Hazem put out a public call for financial support for his many siblings and family members, who have found temporary refuge in Egypt and are struggling to cover their daily expenses. Hazem is currently organizing this fundraiser through a Facebook page, which you can follow here for transparency updates on how funds are being transferred and used. There are currently two ways to donate to Hazem’s call for donations: (1) through PayPal at hazemassry@gmail.com, or (2) through Taiwanese bank transfer at the account below.
Bank Name: Land Bank of Taiwan (005)
Account Number: 103005377289
Swift Code: LBOTTWTP103
Beneficiary's Name: HAZEM DS ALMASSRY
Readers who have been to DAYBREAK since late March might have noticed that we have a stack of Moon Tell Me Truth: Poems from Palestine and Beyond (2024) books from The Hands Up Project, which we are selling on a 100% donation basis as part of an ongoing fundraiser organized by poets Peter and Alice Oswald to get Layla Mohammed and her family out of Gaza.
Layla Mohammed painted the book cover image of Moon Tell Me Truth. She is a 20 year old aspiring biologist who was a top student in clinical biology at the Islamic University of Gaza before Israeli air forces bombed the university on October 11th. Layla plans to continue her studies at Debrecen University in Hungary this fall. In November shortly after her family fled their home in Khan Younis, Layla’s cat Sokar (sugar in Arabic) died after sustaining wounds likely due to Israeli bombardment. Layla and her family, thankfully, were not injured. She is the oldest of four siblings, who along with her mother and father have fled to Rafah City. Layla’s father Mohammed, mother Lolo, younger brother Ibrahim (16 years old), younger sister Salma (12 years old), and youngest sister Sarah (7 years old) are currently all safe. Salma and Sarah have the same birth date in late April, which Layla was able to celebrate with them recently.
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Gazans seeking to flee to Egypt right now must pay thousands of dollars in “travel fees” to travel agencies connected to the Egyptian government. Fees prior to the war were in the hundreds of dollars range. Hala Consulting and Tourism Services, which is owned by Sinai militia leader and tycoon Ibrahim al-Organi’s holding company Organi Group, currently has a monopoly over transfer services at the Rafah crossing and is estimated to have made $118 million USD over the past three months on travel fees from Palestinians fleeing Israel’s war on Gaza. Hala currently charges $5,000 per adult and $2,500 per child under 16 to travel through the Rafah crossing, and requires that travelers have a sponsor in Egypt at time of payment.
In the face of catastrophic bombardment, famine, and healthcare deprivation, the decision to leave Gaza for Palestinians who are being collectively punished by Israel for Hamas’ October 7th attack is difficult to say the least. The agony that this decision entails is compounded by the fact that, given the exorbitant travel fees and sponsorship system required to flee, many Palestinians fleeing Gaza must endure the ambiguous grief of in/definite family separation in the midst of war–such as Layla’s family.
Yesterday evening, Layla was finally able to make it to Egypt. Layla’s father, mother, and three younger siblings, however, are still in Rafah. At the time of writing, Israel is still deliberating its planned ground invasion of Rafah as ceasefire talks appear to be approaching an impasse once again. This morning, Israel issued evacuation notices across Eastern Rafah, suggesting that the ground invasion is imminent. Layla’s family is among the approximately 1.4 million Palestinians sheltering in Rafah awaiting their fate. The average processing time from payment to arrival in Egypt is approximately 25 days. It is unclear what will happen by the end of the month and whether Layla will see her family again.
New Bloom’s readership and community have historically been extremely generous in financially supporting the work that we do. We hope that this generosity can extend to the two families and fundraisers that are connected to the Palestinian solidarity organizing we have been engaged in in Taipei.
Please see Hazem Almassry’s Facebook fundraiser page and Layla Mohammed’s GoFundMe page for the latest updates—and share this information widely.