Gaza: online prize pools, the last hope of Gazans to try to leave the enclave
Negotiations around a truce in Gaza are at an impasse.
Israel maintains its threats to launch an assault on the city of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians have sought refuge.
Faced with the continuation and possible intensification of the fighting, many Gazans now dream of reaching Egypt, to find safety.
But the passage is expensive and to finance their exit from the Palestinian enclave, crowdfunding campaigns are set up.
Palestinians walk past the rubble of a building destroyed by Israeli bombings, in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, on March 12, 2024. © Mohammed Abed / AFP
By: Guilhem Delteil Follow
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After
five months of war
, departure is now the last glimmer of hope for many Gazans.
Nearly a million Palestinians moved during the fighting, from the northern half to the southern half, then within this part itself, from Nuseirat or Khan Younes towards Rafah.
But the fighting is moving closer to this town located on the border with Egypt, reinforcing for civilians the feeling that no place currently offers minimal protection in
Gaza
.
Today, many
want to leave the enclave
for shelter.
Their dream is to cross the border with Egypt.
In the first weeks of the war, Cairo restricted entry into its territory to Gazans holding dual nationality, Egyptian or otherwise.
Now the rules are less strict.
Departure is possible for everyone, but the exit ticket requires change.
“
To leave legally, we have to pay
$5,000 per person
,” explains Saed Mgharee, a young Gazan.
“
At least
$5,000
,
”
he
says immediately.
He dreams of sheltering his family – his parents, his two sisters and his brother: “
we are talking about 30,000
dollars to be able to cross the Rafah border post
”.
200 new campaigns launched every day
These sums are impossible to raise for a very large part of the population.
In Gaza,
the war has added to the
already existing poverty.
Prices have soared: basic foodstuffs cost ten to fifteen times more than before the start of the conflict.
And the vast majority of Gazans have lost their sources of income.
“
Most people here are day laborers
,” emphasizes Saed Mgharee.
If they don't work, they don't get paid.
And for the majority of Gazans, economic activity ceased on October 7.
Even he, a digital marketing specialist who works with clients based outside Gaza, no longer has a salary.
“
All the companies canceled their contracts with me.
I haven’t received anything since October 7
,” he adds.
To get his family out of Gaza, Saed Mgharee cannot therefore rely on his own funds alone.
“
I was forced to create a campaign on a crowdfunding platform: GoFundMe ,
”
he explains.
Screenshot of the fundraiser launched for the family of Saed Mgharee, launched on the Gofundme site © Screenshot of the Gofundme site
These online jackpots are today the last glimmer of hope for civilians caught in the fighting and who see no end in sight.
This call for international solidarity is common during major crises, which capture international attention such as the earthquake in Turkey and Syria in February 2023, the forest fires in Hawaii last August or the war in Ukraine.
And this method is effective.
Since the start of the current Russian offensive in Ukraine in February 2024, GoFundMe, the largest crowdfunding platform in the world, has raised $250 million.
The various crowdfunding sites are once again being called upon to help the victims of the war between Israel and Hamas.
The amounts collected have not, for the moment, reached the amounts recorded for Ukraine, but GoFundMe has identified 200 new campaigns launched every day.
This figure includes the prize pools in favor of Palestinian and Israeli victims.
Also read: War in Gaza: “No one can dare to talk about peace or dialogue”
No more restrictions on Gaza fundraisers
But the platforms must be vigilant about the destination of the funds collected.
“
Our role is to ensure that the generosity of our users falls into the right hands
,” says Leetchi, a French crowdfunding company.
It is subject to French and international regulations regarding the fight against fraud, money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
These constraints apply to all campaigns, everywhere in the world.
But when it comes to Gaza, additional restrictions are required.
Hamas, in power in the Palestinian enclave, is considered a terrorist movement by the United States and the European Union.
“
Our banks and payment partners are asking us to exercise increased diligence, which may result in longer wait times
,” GoFundMe says on its
website
.
Some campaigns cannot be closed by their initiators until verifications have been undertaken.
“
What we're trying to do with fundraisers for Gaza or fundraisers who reach out to anyone involved in the current conflict in the Middle East is to ask them to be very clear about the information in their fundraising stories
,” explains Dina Rickman, the platform’s Northern Europe director.
“
So we ask them to say who they are, where they are from, give the full name of the people or organizations they are trying to support, specify where they are and what their relationship is to them.
We ask them to also explain how the funds will be spent and how they plan to send them to the beneficiaries
,” she adds.
Also read: Gaza, the impossible truce
Go through an intermediary person to open a kitty
One of the other difficulties Gazans face is that they cannot launch a campaign themselves.
The services of these financial intermediaries are only accessible in the countries where they are established.
GoFundMe, the leading crowdfunding platform in the world, works in 19 countries, only in Europe, North America and Oceania.
To open their pots, Gazans therefore go through friends or relatives.
But failing to have relatives living abroad, some place all their hopes in simple acquaintances.
And it happens that the dream clashes violently with reality.
Mai Rajab thus saw her hopes of leaving disappear in February.
This 25-year-old young woman lived in Gaza City, in the north of the enclave.
When Israeli troops began their ground assault, she left with her family to the south, to Khan Younes and then to Rafah.
In the first months of the war, “
all I wanted was to return home after repeated displacements, and for this war to end
,” she wrote on the social
network there is no hope: all the news says that it will not end in a complete ceasefire, only in a truce linked to a certain number of days and weeks!
»
she continues.
“All I want now is to survive, me and my family
,” explained Gazouie.
Mai Rajab therefore opened, thanks to an intermediary, an online fundraiser.
His dream was getting closer.
She even believed that it would come true in February, when the expected amount, $50,000, was reached.
All I wanted was to go back to my house after a repeated displacement, and that this war would end, but there is no hope that all the news says that it will not end with a full ceasefire, just a thing tied to a number of days and weeks!
All I want now is to survive me and my…
— Mai Rajab 𓂆 (@Mai_Gazan) March 9, 2024
But that's when the door slammed shut.
Mai Rajab recounts her disappointment on X. The intermediary informed her that she did not want to transfer the money to him, saying she preferred to reimburse the contributors.
According to the young woman, faced with her questions, her interlocutor dryly replied: “
I am not responsible for your travels.
I wish you luck
,” then deactivated his accounts.
The money never reached Mai Rajab.
“
It was my dream.
She broke my heart,
” she continues.
His story moved.
Another woman living in the United States has finally launched a new campaign in support of the young woman and her family.
Also read: In Gaza, “a real mafia gets its hands on almost all the aid”
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