Support the extended Khitawi family in Gaza
Shooq and Fatemah in al-Mawasi Khan Yunis camp - members of the Khitawi family
Our work in tikkun olam continues.
This past year, we launched a campaign to support the extended Khitawi family in Gaza. Your response was immediate, and our small community raised $13,000 to help the family survive the winter. Thank you ever so much to everyone who participated.
Now is the time to re-launch our efforts. Most of the family’s 86 members continue to live in dire conditions in refugee camps, and their needs remain the same: food, water, clothing and shelter. Our donations are part of a larger support network for Gazans created by Jews in Israel and beyond. Rabbi Misha’s childhood friend, Racheli Zohar, is the lead organizer for the Khitawis – and our community’s contribution is critical.
Please join this important effort!
You can make your tax-deductible contribution here.
(Please check “Khitawi family” in the drop-down.)
Our current goal is $3,600. Please help us reach it!
Below is more information about the Khitawis and our campaign. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions you may have.
With deep gratitude and great hope,
Maia
To make a donation click here
From the founders of the Gaza Support Network:
This initiative grew out of a desire to connect and from a sense of responsibility to one another as citizens, neighbors, and human beings. For too many years, Israelis and Gazans have lived in separation and disconnection. But since October 7th and the devastation that has followed, our sense has grown stronger that peace won’t come from leaders or governments. It must come from us – the people.
1. Dr. Mousa Khitawi is the liaison for his family members in Gaza. Mousa lives in the West Bank and is a dedicated member of the Israeli Palestinian Bereaved Families for Peace. You can listen to his keynote address to the Joint Israeli Palestinian Memorial Day Ceremony on April 29, 2025 here.
Mousa has lost some 30 members of his family in the destruction of Gaza.
2. How are food and other essentials available in the Gaza with such massive destruction and quotas on re-supply trucks? Tents and tarps are brought in by relief agencies. Some of these supplies end up for sale at prices unattainable by ordinary Gazans. There is also a big trade in secondhand items and clothing. Our donations help pay the inflated prices.
3. How do the funds get to the family? A member of the network meets Mousa at a checkpoint between Israel and the West Bank with cash. Mousa sends the funds electronically to his various family members via apps such as Vodaphone or directly to the Bank of Palestine, depending on what each family has access to. With a crippled banking system and severe cash shortage, most Gazans rely on electronic transfers and pay for goods with e-wallets. Merchants generally charge fees for purchases when paid electronically. See this story for the workarounds.
4. The Khitawi family is spread out in the following locations, some of which have come under recent attack by Israel:
-3 families in Bureij refugee camp (video of post-bombardment/September)
-2 families in Nuseirat refugee camp
-1 family al-Mawasi refugee camp (video of post-bombardment/June) and (this story about the attack)
-2 families Deir al-Balah refugee camp (video of post-bombardment/August)
5. Please contact me at maiawechsler@gmail.com with any questions.
Musa Hittawi at the 20th Israeli-Palestinian Joint Memorial Ceremony