Online page set up to support family’s efforts to get mother safely out of Palestine

A CO. MAYO woman has set up a fund-raising page in a “last resort” attempt to save her mother from the war being waged by Israel against Palestine.

Repeated air raid bombings in Gaza has forced many fleeing to the Palestine/Egypt border with Naimh (pictured right), the 73-year-old mother of Israa Mohsen being amongst the refugees.

Israa, who has lived in Ireland for the last seven years and holds dual Irish-Palestinian citizenship, has set up the page as appeals for help to local TDs and the Foreign Affairs office have been met with silence.

Israa said: “My mum is not in a safe situation with her and the rest of the family at risk of the bombing coming to the area that they are in.

“They had to evacuate from their home since the beginning of the war. Our family home is now destroyed completely.

“Even if the war is stopped now, they can’t go back home because there is now no home to go back to.

“My mother is 73-years-old and she can’t live in this situation. I emailed the Foreign Affairs office on December 10 to see what could be done to try and get her out and over to Ireland but I am still waiting to hear from them.

“Which is why we’ve tried the GoFundMe page to see if we can raise the money to get her out ourselves.

“I don’t know if it will work but, just maybe, we will try.

“The last time I spoke to my mum was just over a week ago. It’s hard to reach them as the connection is very bad and I couldn’t hear her voice clearly.

“She said many things but because of the bad connection, I could only hear a few words.

“I have tried to text them to ask them if they’re OK. However, I only got responses back after three or four days so trying to get in touch with them is very difficult in this situation due to the bad (phone signal) connection there.

“My family were living in the middle of Gaza City itself when the bombing from the Israelis started – this was four weeks after the war began on November 1.

“My father died – he was a diabetic and the insulin he was on had to be kept in the fridge. Because there was no electricity, keeping it at fridge temperature was not possible.

“However, he had to have his insulin to control his diabetes but it had an effect on his body which led to complications and he passed away.”

Unfortunately, the armed guards on the Egyptian side of the border are demanding large amounts of money to let each refugee seeking to flee to bombing being waged on Palestine cross the border.

“The cost was USD $7,000 per person but now it is USD $10,000,” added Israa. “The Egyptian border guards at the Palestine/Egypt border raise the money every month and this makes it not easy to get out.

“You either have to pay the money that they want or you have to die.

“My family can’t pay as they had to leave everything they had in our house – which has been destroyed.

“Most of the people at the border are in the same situation as they too had to leave everything to run away from the bombing.

“This has been very distressing – more so as I have recently become pregnant. I feel so distressed at what’s happened to my mum and my dad and at our home being destroyed.

“I went to visit them last August as I had received my Irish passport after five years of waiting.

“The first thing that I wanted to do was to go and visit my family in Gaza and I told my husband this in case something happened.

“We visited them and then two months later, the war starts. I asked myself how could this happen so quickly after I finally get the chance to go back and see my family again?

“I had to wait for five years (to qualify for an Irish passport) as with a Palestinian passport, it is not easy to go there – or anywhere for that matter.

“It’s so hard as you have to apply for visas to visit any country anywhere in the world. Even to my own country.

She added: “So I had to wait until I got my Irish passport because if something happened, I would be able to get out with that passport instead of a Palestinian one as a war could break out at any time – which it has.”

If you wish to donate to Israa’s GoFundMe page, log onto www.gofundme.com/f/ save-my-mom-and-my-brother.