Translation

“Hello, I am Mahmoud. I was born in Gaza in 2003. I was named after my martyred uncle who was assassinated by a special force from the Zionist Israeli army. I was born into a middle-class family, but since my birth I have suffered from a chronic brain disease called epilepsy. Most of my childhood was spent in a hospital.

We did not have the great possibilities in Gaza because of the severe siege since 2006. I always tried as much as possible to live my childhood like any child in the world, but this is very difficult in Gaza. Since I opened my eyes to the world, the 2008 war on Gaza began. I was five years old, and after that came the 2012 war, and after that came the 2014 war.

That was how the first 11 years of my childhood were full of wars and fear. In that year, Sisi came to rule Egypt, and since his arrival, he has tightened the siege on us. Because of him, my father lost his job and his project, and traveling to Egypt became very difficult and very humiliating in a dirty way. The distance between Gaza and Cairo is only six hours, but it took him two days to humiliate us.

When I was 16 years old, my illness became so severe that I could no longer leave the house. I had to travel to Egypt for treatment. My father and I applied for a visa and it was accepted. When we arrived at the crossing, the suffering and humiliation began. We waited 7 hours for them to put the stamp on our passport. It doesn’t take minutes, but it took 7 hours.

The weather there was very hot, there was no air conditioning and no helicopters. After we left the crossing, I thought that everything would be easy after that, but there were many checkpoints. At every checkpoint, the Egyptian police would search our bags and throw what was in them on the ground, then tell us to collect them. This happened three times. I wanted to scream and explode at them, but I couldn’t because if I did that, my father and I would still be in prison.

The same thing happened when we returned to Gaza. I had some gifts for my sisters and friends, but they exported most of them because electronics are not allowed to enter. That was our suffering in Gaza, so we had to travel as if we were not human beings. After I returned to Gaza, my health improved until this war happened. After two months, my treatment and most of the medicines in Gaza were cut off, and to this day there is a great shortage of medicines. During the war and the lack of treatment, the damned disease came back to me, and that was one of the reasons I left for Egypt.

We paid everything we had to travel there. Yes, we were exploited in a dirty way, but there was no other solution. When we came to Egypt, we did not know that life here had become very difficult and expensive. Although I was sick, I worked so that I could provide for my treatment. I worked 11 hours for only $2, which was not enough for anything, but there was no other solution. After a short period, I left work because my health condition had become difficult and my head was broken because of it. For this reason, I did a Go Fund Me.

Also, our house in Gaza was destroyed and we lost everything. Since the beginning of the war, my friend Mohammed was telling me to do GoFundMe, but I refused because throughout my life I never thought of asking anyone. I felt broken when I did GoFundMe, but there is no other solution. Your donations can help me go to Germany to receive final treatment there. This was my story and my suffering and most of the suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza. I want to thank you for your support and assistance ♥“