Glimpses of GAZA

01/08/2024

The Sidra Project verifies fundraisers in Gaza. Go to them to get verified or to find refugees who have already been verified and are fundraising.



https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61561852061252

Non-profit organisation

26/07/2024

My new article in the Glimpses of Gaza series was published in Z Network. This is what the subject of the story told me after she read it:
“Eros, I read it. You wrote my story as if you were living with me. Did you know that I cried with every line I read? I recalled the events as if they had just happened. I cried a lot, but this is the reality and I am forced to accept my lot. Thank you for being with me🙏❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹.”

During the massacre for hostages deal enforced by the Israeli military in Nuseirat, Gaza on June 8th, 2024, Fatima Jamal messaged me: “We are in danger

26/06/2024

This is my new article on Gaza refugees called "Between Rage and Despair" about Fatima Amhed Qadeeh.

“I curse you!” Fatima Ahmed Qadeeh says. “I curse you hypocrites! You live off the blood of Gaza!” On the surface she’s angry, because I haven’t been able

17/06/2024

To Whom It May Concern, I AM LOOKING FOR SOMEONE TO CREATE A GO FUND ME PAGE FOR MY GAZA REFUGEE FRIEND GHADA AKA MEMP JAY. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61557112224297

I specialize in helping refugees inside Gaza and publishing their stories. I have had my articles on them appear in online magazines, had an article written about my work with them featured in the American-Jewish magazine, Moment, and will be interviewed for a forthcoming podcast on refugee mental health in June. In addition I have a couple of more articles on refugees that will be published in magazines this summer. I am writing to you now to tell you about one of my refugee friends, Ghada Shanab.

Ghada was a successful woman and mother who worked hard as an English teacher and bought her own house where she and her parents and three daughters lived. As a single mother she was hit really hard by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) invasion of Gaza. Her house was bombed and she and her family narrowly escaped. Since that day they have spent the entire war fleeing from place to place with little but the clothes on their backs. Although they have escaped death many times, they are now in a desperate state with the increasing scarcity of food and other necessary supplies since the invasion of Rafah. Before the war Ghada’s mother had surgery on her back and knees, while her father suffered from diabetes, kidney stones and high blood pressure. Today they live in a tent in the town of Deir Al-Balah that bakes like an oven in the summer heat, and they are constantly bothered by insects—including scorpions, flies and mosquitos among others which make the children itch and leave rashes. There is a lack of clean water to drink, let alone to bathe and to keep cool with. Her parents have not received medical care since the war began, and the food supply has been dropping sharply since the closure of the border crossings in May. The only reason Ghada’s family is still alive is luck. But that luck is running out, and her family goes hungrier by the day. Hence, Ghada, like many other refugees, has turned to asking the outside world for help. She has no money and even a small amount would allow her to buy the necessary food, clean water and other supplies for living. The rest of the money would go towards rebuilding their lives once the war has ended.

These are before and after photographs of her apartment (that she found online). It was a wonderful place that she worked hard to build from scratch. Now it is all gone and her only wish in regards to it, is to visit Gaza City one last time to see its remains. Instead, IDF quad copters shoot anyone who spends to much time traveling from one place to another.

These are her precious daughters who used to be happy children that excelled in school. Now they cling to life in a barren tent in the middle of Gaza. It seems almost impossible that they will be able to follow in the footsteps of their mother who graduated with a BA degree in English from Al-Aqsa University in 2008.

If you have any questions about Ghada you can reach me via the contact page of my website for helping refugees https://erossalvatore.com/

08/06/2024

Last night I got these messages from my friends Lolo and Fatima of the Jamal family. Lolo is a widow with two young children. Fatima is her sister. I hope they are still alive and not injured.

01/06/2024

The American-Jewish magazine Moment did an article on my online video meetings with Gaza refugees and those trying to help them. It’s called A Zoom Room With A View: One Man’s Window Into A Rafah Refugee Camp. Scroll below article to find Go Fund Me links to the refugees mentioned in the article.

You can read it here: https://momentmag.com/rafah-refugee-camp/

The family of Diana Hamada at https://gofund.me/67eac389

The family of Samar and Omar Al-Sadi at https://gofund.me/d6a5dcb2

The family of Maryam Hasanat at https://gofund.me/9e6745b9

And my co-host for the meetings, Omar Skaik and his family at https://gofund.me/66dfcdb0

Also, among the refugees I am helping:

The family Rawan Al-Jadi. Rawan is in the eighth month of a pregnancy with medical complications. You can find out more at https://gofund.me/226de26a

The family of Alaa Jamal. Alaa is a widow and mother of two young children who lost most of her relatives, as well as her husband, during the war. Alaa has gone from 70kg (144lbs) to 52kg (114lbs) since the war started, and her children have had to go to the hospital to get treatment for severe malnutrition. Her three-year-old daughter Sanaa contracted Hepatitis A and can no longer eat on her own. You can find out more here: https://gofund.me/d0591059

Since February, Eros Salvatore has been a lifeline for Gazans seeking to escape Israeli bombardment of Rafah refugee camps.

27/05/2024

Poetry and Recipes from Gaza Refugees struggling to stay alive.

This is the poetry and recipe edition of the Gaza refugee weekly meetings held from March to May 2024. Poetry and Recipes can be found here: https://docs.goo...

25/05/2024

Reminder: the final Gaza refugee meeting of the spring will take place Sunday, May 26th at noon Pacific time (10pm Gaza time). This week we will be focusing on poetry and recipes from my faithful refugee friends.
Here's a poem in Arabic. It will be translated into English by Sunday. Skip to 1:15 for girl and poem.
https://fb.watch/shmyKAxkZu/
Zoom Link for May 26th: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81639371200

21/05/2024

Hello, I hold a weekly Zoom meeting with refugees who live inside Gaza and Americans. Our final meeting of the spring with take place Sunday, May 26th at noon Pacific time (10pm Gaza time). This week we will be focusing on poetry and recipes from my faithful refugee friends. Here is a link to the May 19th Meeting (featuring most of the poets and cooks who will be in May 26th's Poetry and Recipe Season Finale) https://youtu.be/tjry8gRX1G0

Comment or DM me for May 26th Zoom Link.

You can find out more about me and my work with Gaza refugees at my website www.erossalvatore.com

This is one of our best videos and features the family of Maryam Hasanat, a young mother with a complicated pregnancy she carried throughout the entire war u...

10/05/2024

This is a video from my latest zoom meeting with Gaza refugees. Luckily, every one of them and their families survived this week’s onslaught of Rafah.

https://youtu.be/Y5Ue8lDCMtk?si=_RNxCaaYbt6kx4FF

Please forward to those interested in what we’re doing.

Every Sunday at noon Pacific time until the end of May.

Please DM if you would like to attend the meeting.

This is the best video, so far, of our meetings with refugees inside of Gaza.

06/05/2024

I HAVE TERRIBLE NEWS:

Tonight they dropped these leaflets in Rafah ordering people to evacuate. It says

"Calling for all people who exist in these neighborhoods, the IDF soldiers working so hard against the terrorist organization that is near to you. If you stay you are putting yourself in danger. For your safety the IDF is calling for you to evacuate to Al-Mawasi. We warn you not to move back to Gaza because it is still a war zone."

Unfortunately, this area that they are evacuating includes the Rafah border crossing where all humanitarian aid is coming in from!
This one was bitten by my friend Omar's daughter Mimi. Yesterday we had raised enough money to get Omar and his wife and three children across the border. Now they will not be able to go, since it takes 20 to 30 days to get a registration date.

You can follow Omar's story on my website: https://erossalvatore.com/

04/05/2024

Anwar Ghilan who was the subject of my first magazine article on Gaza refugees was evacuated to Egypt with his wife and son yesterday. Here is a photograph taken at the gate at the border.

19/04/2024

If you are interested in talking with refugees who currently reside in Gaza, I host a weekly zoom meeting on Sundays at noon PST with them. This week will be talking with Anwar who I wrote about in the following article. He is also was the focus of a New York Times video on refugees in Gaza. Please send me a DM and state so in the comments so I can give you the zoom link.

Another family died yesterday. A dozen families die everyday. They usually manage to pull a few bodies out of the rubble. The rest remain. No one has the

11/04/2024

This is a video about the life of a five-year-old Gaza refugee girl named Shaghaf.
Go Fund Me Link in the comments.

10/04/2024

This is a video showing conditions for the family of Diana Hamada. Donation link and Instagram link in the comments. Follow her Instagram to see daily updates on life as a refugee in Gaza.

05/04/2024

The family featured in my first story "Glimpses of Gaza - Anwar's Story" was in the NY Times today. Here's the story.

https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/middleeast/100000009389675/gaza-food-shortage-rafah.html?smid=url-share&fbclid=IwAR2D9SY0kQsQp29KhXJkXCtq6M5ad6AMOJXA-l15o0FgaIc5tH9PCj61tvs_aem_AV4vo1Dc4VocHAcp-IBjLMNTNLpNQJpxNvGR7V6EEhhyGRTOFnvMDqRhX8kzRe0Q2dX4kmHc3yP1pwzbTfdPM6Cv

Anwar Ghilan worked as an English teacher before the Israeli siege on Gaza. After the war broke out, he lost his source of income and turned to selling clothes to keep his family fed amid high food prices.

04/04/2024

Hello, this is a Christian family from Gaza who have lost their home and everything in their lives. Their mother, Reem Shafeeq Ayyad, contacted me from the Holy Family Church in Gaza.
They don't have clean water, good food or access to education.
Please help them get out of Gaza.
And rebuild their home after war.
Here are their two boys. This was filmed yesterday.
Go Fund Me link in the comments.

02/04/2024

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!

Two of our refugee families have been fully funded to get across the border to Egypt through their Go Fund Me's that you have donated to: Maryam's (with her husband on the left) and Anwar's(with his son on the right).

But the battle is not over. They still have to wait to cross the border, and Israel can close the border at any time. Please keep up the work protesting in your respective countries and pressuring your respective politicians to stop Israel invading Rafah!

29/03/2024

Hello everyone, this is one of the conversations I had with Maryam, the pregnant woman whose Go Fund Me we started. It's from a few nights ago when she was scared by the bombing, and illustrates how to help someone in serious situations calm down.
(These comments were posted with Maryam's consent)
Go Fund Me link in comments.

27/03/2024

This was written by a 14 year old girl named Farah during the 2021 Israeli war on Gaza. She’s currently a refugee in Rafah. The GoFundMe for her family is in the comments.

During the 2021 war, someone asked me what was the worst thing you went through, and this was my answer. My answer received 33 thousand views at the time. The worst I've ever been through:

Imagine that you are a fourteen-year-old girl, doing your homework at two o’clock in the afternoon, and then you hear a sound like an explosion, and you hear the neighbors and the whole city coming out of their homes to see what happened, and then the Zionists begin waging a new war on Gaza. I remember when I saw News channels and videos of the bombings. I was shocked by the war. This would be the third war I had experienced in 14 years. It was a bad night in every sense of the word. We moved away from everything glass and removed it from the rooms. During the two weeks of the war, I started reading all the prayers I knew, to the point that I was writing wills to my family and friends. I was trying to put on headphones, listen to a podcast, read the rest of my books, and do my homework normally, but I couldn’t. My people were dying, my city was being hit by dozens of missiles. I remember the night the war ended as if it were today. I was sleeping and woke up at three in the morning to the sound of ululations, fireworks, chants, and demonstrations. And he laughed.

The first thing I did was I prayed, and I sat watching social media and the joy that spread through the cities, and then I finally returned to my room and slept deeply.
I am truly proud to be Palestinian. I feel very proud when someone mentions the word Palestine.

We stand with Palestine, because its a test of the conscience of the world 💙
Farah Najjar 2021.

24/03/2024

My second story in the Glimpses of Gaza series about the Women of Gaza has been published by Z network.

In the next few days, after this story gets published,  I will either save a pregnant woman and her child’s life,  or I will fail.  Latifa

18/03/2024

THE FIRST STORY IN THE "GLIMPSES OF GAZA" SERIES HAS BEEN POSTED ONLINE AT Z NETWORK!!!

This story is not just a tale about a Palestinian refugee, but about how he almost gave up after five months of hell, and decided to keep on fighting for himself, his family and his people. It will encourage those who are helping refugees anywhere and give you skills in fighting these demons called genocide and war. It is a triumph of the human spirit!

Another family died yesterday. A dozen families die everyday. They usually manage to pull a few bodies out of the rubble. The rest remain. No one has the

18/03/2024

HELP NEEDED TO OPEN UP A GO FUND ME FOR A WOMAN IN GAZA WHO IS EIGHT MONTHS PREGNANT.

Hello, I am looking for someone who would be willing to open up a Go Fund Me for Maryam who is eight months pregnant in Gaza. She is trying to get to Egypt, or at the very least get money to help cover her living costs. She has to $150 a month just to rent a tent in Rafah, and food is extremely expensive. I talk to people in Gaza everyday, and I know she is a real person not a scammer.

Maryam's best friend was killed by the IDF two days ago, and her brother-in-law was shot to death by the IDF yesterday. It would give her a lot of hope if someone would make a Go Fund Me for her. You don't have to donate any of your money. This is Maryam with her husband.

08/03/2024

This is a video from a verified GoFundMe account that you can safely donate to. All money will go to help Latifa (لولو لولو) and her family. GoFundMe link in comments.

شاهد المنشور الذي أنشأه The life of a displaced family.

07/03/2024

My friend Anwar, a resident of Gaza, created this video in response to the ridiculous attempt of the USA to make up for all the bombs they gave Israel to drop on Gaza, with a handful of meals, that feed about one percent of the people. Please post to your page. Let's get it to go viral!

02/03/2024

If you want to donate to the people of Gaza but are unsure of people asking for personal donations, you can donate here, to the Palestine Children's Relief Fund. By the way, I, Eros Salvatore, endorse everyone whose fundraiser appears on this page or in my articles.
Thank you for your support!

The Palestine Children's Relief Fund was established in 1992 by concerned humanitarians in the USA to bring injured and sick children for free medical care they could not get locally