Egypt Deployment
After coming back from my first deployment I knew I wanted to go on another. I had been told by a friend I met out there that Egypt was a good place to visit: you meet a lot of Palestinians who have come directly from Gaza, so I would get to hear first-hand accounts of what the situation is like in Gaza.
Day 1 – Introductions, Intentions and Meeting Palestinian Families
We started off the deployment with introductions and making our intentions. Mine was that I wanted to help document and spread the stories of the people of Gaza and Sudan so that people back home can see the realities of their situations and hear their voices.
After this we started with our first family visit.
Mustafa's whole family was killed. He is now looked after by his grandmother, Umme Muhammad, who is his mother's mother.
When the war started, Mustafa's mother was pregnant. The family was displaced multiple times and had to live in schools, and it was in one of those schools that Mustafa was born, on a kitchen table, on 18th October 2023. His father never got to see him. Because of the displacement they were separated, and he died a year later without ever meeting his son.
Mustafa had a six-year-old and a four-year-old sibling. They were killed in the same strike that killed his mother and injured him. In another school, at the same time, his uncle and cousins were killed.
In that one building, 125 people were killed. Mustafa was the only one who survived. He was ten days old. They found him six hours later, thrown five buildings away, lying on a mattress, because people heard the baby crying. As his grandmother put it, the people flew from the bombs. His mother was not found in the same building as him.
Umme Muhammad's son, Muhammad, stayed with Mustafa in Al-Shifa Hospital while he was being treated in an incubator. He had lost his eye, and his ear had to be sewn back on. Then Al-Shifa was stormed. They heard that all the babies there had died, and they accepted that Mustafa was dead. Muhammad was kicked out and went south, where he was being treated in another hospital. It was there that he heard Mustafa was alive and was being sent to an orphanage.
They ran to find him, but Mustafa had already been sent to Egypt alone. His grandmother sent messages around everywhere until she found him. She found out that he can't hear properly out of that ear.
Life in Egypt is hard. They don't receive any aid. They generally live off other people and off debts to people, and they wait until Ramadan. With Mustafa soon getting to an age where he can start going to school, his grandmother is worried he would have difficulties fitting in. The funds that were raised went towards a prosthetic eye, other medical treatments and financial assistance to the family.
We then did a food distribution for over 50 Palestinian families. Each family received a cash donation, a food pack, gifts for the mums and toys and sweets for the children. This was a really nice moment as we got to play with the kids and dance with them to songs of Palestinian nationalism.
Livelihood Project
After this we had our first livelihood project. Livelihood projects are where we use donations to help fund projects for refugees. This helps them to create their own income and become self-sufficient, helping to break the cycle of poverty. The lady we met had to leave her family in Gaza and was separated from them as she brought her grandchildren over to Egypt for medical aid as well as receiving cancer treatment for herself. She was taking care of them plus six other children whose parents had to be transferred to another country for treatment. They had met her in the hospital and asked her if she could take care of their children.
She was trying to make ends meet by cooking food and selling spices; however, she was struggling to generate enough demand due to competition from larger businesses that could undercut her. We then heard that she used to own a spice business in Gaza and that it was really popular. She used to supply spices for her entire community and even exported them to neighbouring countries. This would be the ideal business for her, but she couldn't afford the equipment to make a start. With the donations raised we were able to supply her kitchen with everything to get the business running, from the equipment to the raw materials. This allows her to make a living while also looking after the kids!
Day 1 recap!
Day 2 – Family Visits, Livelihood Project and a Food Distribution
Day two had four parts: a family who had only just left Gaza, a livelihood project we helped set up, a check-in with someone we had supported earlier this year and a food distribution for Sudanese refugees.
Visit 1 – Abu Noor
Abu Noor broke down crying at the start of our conversation.
He left Gaza ten days ago with his wife, who needs medical treatment. His two sons and the rest of his family are still there. People aren't allowed to leave, and he was only allowed out to accompany her for medical reasons.
Life in the camps was unimaginable. They lived in tents with no toilets, sometimes going without food for four days at a time, in camps infested with rodents. He used to own an apartment block and a business, over half a million US dollars' worth of property. He has lost all of it and now has only a tent.
His father once took him to the place in Palestine where the family lived before they were made refugees in 1948 and moved to Gaza. He told us the cycle is now repeating itself, with his own family becoming refugees again.
When they left Rafah they were given warnings in the form of leaflets, and almost no time passed before the bombs started. When they first arrived in Al-Mawasi, they slept on the beach and relied on donations from other refugees. Whenever they heard the water truck or the food distribution arriving, they sprinted to get there in time and get in line.
One day he was on his way to the mosque when he heard a bomb drop. On his way back he saw a metal door with thousands of pieces of shrapnel in it. He thought about what would happen if that hit a human being. He told us these bombs are banned internationally.
His wife has diabetes and high blood pressure, and she used to have check-ups every three months. Since the genocide began she hasn't had a single check-up or any medication.
He also told us how prices have changed. Before the war, 1kg of tomatoes cost 70 cents. Now it costs 40 times that, which is $28.
We asked him what he would say if everyone in the world were watching him on camera. He said:
"Remove this dark cloud over our heads. All we want to do is live. We want our children to lead a normal life. What have we done? They are coming here and taking our land and locking us out. Why? We want our children to grow up and feel safe, and not feel like they don't belong. Why?"
Livelihood Project – Umme Muhammad
This visit was to a livelihood project, one of the small businesses the charity sets up so that families can earn a stable income instead of relying on aid.
Umme Muhammad left Gaza in February 2024, four months after the war started. She told us those four months were the easiest of the war. Her family left their house in Gaza City one week after the war began and went to Rafah. They left with nothing, because they thought they would be coming back, as bombings were common. Their house was completely destroyed.
Her biggest struggle is her daughter, who has cancer. She was getting treatment before the war. Her daughter's house was bombed and the front was destroyed, and Umme Muhammad had to force them to leave. Her daughter has low immunity because of her treatment, which made living in tents even more difficult. They managed to get a referral for her daughter to go to Egypt for treatment, and her condition is a lot better. But her mental health has deteriorated because she is stuck in the hospital.
Umme Muhammad is renting so that she can look after her daughter's children. She is also looking after two other children, whose mother had to go to America for treatment and couldn't take them, which means she is looking after eight people.
She has no education or business experience. She can make cakes and biscuits but had no equipment, so she started with chicken and rice and reinvested the profits. She makes her treats with semolina and no sugar, because they have dates inside, and they're delicious.
The business is struggling now, as people are going to restaurants again and there is less demand for her food. Some days she makes a dollar in profit, and some days she is at a loss. We provided her with everything she needs: a stove, an oven and a freezer.
Check-in – Mohsin
Mohsin met the team at the end of April this year, and in July we supported him with surgery. On this visit we were checking in to see how he is doing and whether he needs anything else.
He left Gaza in February 2025 on a medical referral. He has injuries in both legs and shrapnel in his head, and he can't hear in one ear. In two months it will be three years since he was injured, and the genocide is still going on. He told us the internal pain is something they can't explain in words, but they try their best.
He left behind his wife and three children. His son Muhammad doesn't know him, because Mohsin left shortly after his injury. He has had three surgeries so far, on his knee, ankle and shin. The delay in getting treatment caused more issues, and he has disfigurements in his ankle and feet. Recently his nine-year-old daughter sent him a voice note, which motivated him to go through with his treatment.
Mohsin reminded us that this didn't start on 7th October. His cousin was killed by gunfire in 2003, when he was 13, back when there were settlements. After the settlers left, they started bombing instead.
He told us they try to destroy their memories: the universities, the mosques, the hospitals, the tents, which are the places he has gone to and from. Mohsin is an Islamic studies graduate and a Quran teacher. He said they can't destroy the memories, and that this is what they will hold on to.
We asked him why Palestinians are never angry, why they stay patient and never curse or lash out at what they face. His answer: you go through being abused left, right and centre, and you fall into anger, but you bounce back, because that's what they want. They want us to lose ourselves. They want to make us into the monsters they say we are. Our religion teaches us to be just. We know what oppression feels like, and we don't want others to feel it. We feel the bullets and the pain, we know the magnitude of it, and we don't want anyone else to feel it.
Food Distribution and a history of the Sudanese genocide
We then travelled to our final task of the day, a food distribution for over 100 Sudanese families. Volunteers also distributed gifts, such as sweets and toys.
We then sat down with 10 Sudanese women and started to hear their story. They told us how life was good before the war started: they had shelter, food and education. With the war they have lost everything and can no longer put their children through education. Lots of the families had to walk for 20 days to escape and arrive in Egypt. They told us how there is nothing left in Sudan, their homes have been destroyed, and they are worried about the future of their children. With the situation in Egypt, families have to choose between food and education.
It was at this point that we were interrupted by a security guard. Egypt has a strict policy of no political talk in public spaces, and we were told to end the visit or the police would get involved. To protect the families' safety we complied and returned to the hotel.
We managed to speak to a political activist who covers the Sudanese genocide, who gave the group a high-level overview of how the war started and who the main actors are. For more background on the war in Sudan, you can read this summary of the Sudanese genocide (PDF).
Day 3 – Family Visits
Visit 1 – Omar's family
Omar is 14 and needs open-heart surgery. His mother left Gaza on 3rd March 2025 to get him treatment, but his father, Ahmed, was left behind. She told us things were good before the war. Then everything changed and their house was destroyed. She said it feels like a constant nightmare.
Omar's little sister Julia is four. She was one when the war broke out. She's always looking at her father's picture and trying to talk to him on the phone. She only started speaking after they left Gaza, which meant her father wasn't there for that milestone.
When we asked Umme Omar what she would say if the world were watching, she told us that Gaza needs someone to stand and support it. Life there isn't something you can imagine: the constant sound of bombs, people screaming, death all around you.
Water was something they simply couldn't get. Omar was vomiting clots of blood and sweating, and they couldn't find him any water. His father risked his life searching for it, digging in the sand to try to find some. His mother told us God gave her patience, and that she doesn't understand how she has endured it. She never thought she'd be able to leave with her children to get Omar treated.
The medical crisis has touched the whole family. From breathing in burning plastic, Omar's father developed a lump in his throat and needs a biopsy, but Gaza doesn't have the equipment to perform it. Omar started crying when his mother spoke about this.
Omar has been having heart problems his whole life. He has already had surgeries one and two, and is now at the final stage, which is a Fontan surgery. They have found a doctor who is willing to do it. Because of his condition he can't exert himself, so no scooters or bikes. *"Why can't I be like the other kids, Mum?"* he asks her.
They live in shared accommodation, with their own room but a shared kitchen and toilet. At one point Omar needed an MRI, but his mother couldn't afford the anaesthesia, so she had to put him through it awake and keep him calm while he panicked.
She was crying and stressed because she didn't know where to find the money. The day the hospital rejected them, she was crying in the house when she got a call from the charity. She told us this was the first time a charity had spoken to her and the first time someone had listened. She had lost hope and was prepared to watch him die. That call gave her hope again that he might live and grow old.
Her son who is still in Gaza called her and asked, "Why do you love Omar more than me? Why did you leave me?" She wants Omar's surgery done so that the family can be reunited.
Omar told us that when he's older he wants to sell cars. He wants his own car company.
Visit 2 – Saffiyah and Dua
Saffiyah and her daughter Dua, who is nine, left Gaza on 8th March 2025. They lived in the north, and lived through both the war and the famine. She described it as the hardest time of their lives.
On 20th May 2024 they were asleep on the third floor of their apartment. Saffiyah woke to screams all around her and passed out. When she came to, she found that Dua, who was six, and her father had been flung out of the apartment by the blast into the neighbours' home. Saffiyah woke up in hospital to the screams of her children.
Dua was in a critical condition, and the damage from the bomb meant part of her foot, the heel, had to be amputated. Ten days after the blast, her father died from his injuries. Saffiyah was one month pregnant with Saeed at the time, and she was injured too. Dua went into a state of shock after losing her father.
She needed three surgeries in Gaza, but because of the lack of medical treatment she never received everything she needed. They were referred to Egypt, where they now live in shared accommodation. Dua's mental health has started improving.
Because she is still growing, the wound keeps reopening, so Dua needs regular surgeries every few months. Tissue grafts are taken from her legs to patch the heel. Her treatment had been covered up to now, but yesterday they learned she needs a more difficult surgery to move the muscle and nerves. They don't know the cost yet, and we will be covering it from the funds raised. Her last surgery cost $1,400.
Saffiyah's two eldest girls, aged 16 and 14, are still in Gaza, staying with their paternal grandfather.
Visit 3 – Umme Nidar
Umme Nidar is from Zeitoun. She told us Gaza was beautiful before the war, and that they lost everything. Their lives were destroyed. She told us that whole families have been wiped from the civil registry, meaning the entire family doesn't exist any more. That is the phrase they use.
She has five sons and a daughter. Her 33-year-old son went to get flour and was killed by a bullet through the midsection. Forty days ago her daughter-in-law was shot and lost her jaw. She has an eight-month-old baby she can't breastfeed, and the IDF isn't letting them leave Gaza to get treatment. The tents are flooding with water.
Umme Nidar herself is a cancer patient. When she was referred and left Gaza, she was put in a house and had to wait five months with no treatment. She has a stoma bag for fluids, and sometimes she can't afford to replace it. She also has arthritis and has to wrap her knees and elbows in order to walk. She has colon cancer and inflammation in her kidneys. She told us that many donors come to the hospital, and she heard doctors telling them to go away. At one point she was locked in a hospital room for a month.
We are covering her treatment and her regular care. She needs her liver tested before she can continue the cancer treatment.
Yesterday was the 7th October anniversary. She told us the Israeli military carpet-bombed the area, and quadcopter drones were shooting people. Her family had been displaced to a school, and that school was bombed and fired on.
Day 4 – Family Visits
Visit 1 – Bawiya and her family
We met Bawiya, a mother of ten: six daughters and four sons. Two of her children are with her: her youngest daughter Islam, who is 17, and her son Abdullah. Her other eight children are still in Gaza.
In 2008, Bawiya lost her three brothers and 32 members of her family. Overall, the family lost around 70 people in that war.
Abdullah was seven at the time. Israeli forces surrounded their neighbourhood in Zeitoun and began throwing white phosphorus to force people out of their homes. It was panic. Bawiya's mother passed out, and the children were crawling and walking around the apartment, breathing it in. They fled to an uncle's house, and the next morning they received the news that her siblings and all of their children had been killed. Bawiya was pregnant at the time, and the force of the blast threw her and broke her pelvic bone.
Islam was born with a foot deformity. Bawiya was one month pregnant when the phosphorus was used. Today Islam has a disfigurement in her spine, a hip replacement and iron rods in her legs, and when she stands her leg isn't straight. Bawiya's pelvic bone still needs a new joint.
The family spent nine years building their home, only to see it destroyed. When I asked what the best thing about Gaza was, they said it was the sea, the only place they ever felt free.
What struck me most was how they spoke about everything they've been through. Bawiya told us they aren't angry, because of the character of the Prophet ﷺ, who never got angry and was patient, and that Allah will give them justice in the hereafter. Abdullah said that all their lives have been war, that they've become accustomed to it, and that they just try to be the best people they can be. Islam told us they have seen so much death that they are used to losing people and ready for their turn to come, and that they accept every soul will taste death. They would rather die as martyrs, as people who were oppressed.
Then Bawiya said something I won't forget: "We've never had people sit down and talk to us." She told us our faces looked full of grace and love, and that it felt amazing to sit and talk with us.
Visit 2 – Muhammad and Fidah
Muhammad and Fidah are from Khan Younis. During the war, Fidah kept getting back pain. Her neighbours' house was bombed and the rubble fell on her, which caused the injury. She has problems in her upper spine, at the C5–C7 vertebrae, and needs surgery to align and fix them.
She went for the operation yesterday, but surgeons couldn't go ahead because of nerves blocking it. She will continue physiotherapy and be rechecked later to see whether surgery is safe. The donations raised will cover this surgery.
They left Gaza two months after the war started, bringing their seven children with them. His sisters stayed behind. Their business and their house are gone. Seven members of their family were killed, and some are still under the rubble, as they haven't been able to bury them.
Muhammad told us how he opened his business when he was 17. It was his dream and he worked really hard there to make ends meet and to put his siblings through education (he was the eldest). He ran this business for 20 years and his goal was to make his kids' lives comfortable so they wouldn't need to go through the struggles that he did. His priority was to give them an education.
Their children range in age from 7 to 18. They have lost everything, and yet they are still thinking about education. The kids are in informal schooling and doing online lessons from the West Bank.
When we asked what he would say if he could speak to the world, Muhammad told us he wouldn't know where to start.
Visit 3 – Osama
Osama is 18. I first met him during Ramadan 2026.
He is an artist, and he still paints, with his feet. In 2008 his mother was pregnant when they were hit by chemical weapons, and Osama was born without arms. During the recent war he was hit by shrapnel in the head and now experiences dizziness.
He needs assistance with everyday tasks such as showering and using the toilet, which has become increasingly difficult for him emotionally as he grows older and seeks greater independence. His mother is getting older and feels she may have heart problems, and she worries about what will happen to him if she passes away.
She lost all of her family in the war. Osama's eldest brother lost a leg, and his sister lost a leg and an arm. The family have received financial assistance from the donations.
You can support Osama by following his instagram!
Osama's poems
Visit 4 – Duha
We had originally scheduled a visit with Duha's father as he required financial support for his medical treatment. However, on Day 3 we were informed that he had sadly passed away. We decided to pay his family a visit to offer our condolences and listen to their story.
Duha works as a researcher documenting the genocide, and she told us that every paper is written with her tears.
She and her family came to Cairo a month ago. A bomb wounded her father about a year and a half ago, and the medical evacuation only happened last month. He passed away yesterday, on 8th October. Twelve or thirteen members of her family were injured.
Her father had shrapnel in his back, a broken leg, shoulder and elbow, and was paralysed from the waist down. She described the hospital he was taken to as very old, with rodents running around. His shoulder and elbow were broken while he was being transported. He was put in a shopping trolley to be taken for a scan. An oxygen tank in the centre malfunctioned. His wounds needed changing every day, but this only happened every few days. In her words, the treatment was disgusting and he was disrespected.
Her mother has shrapnel injuries all over her stomach and is still in Gaza because of them. At one point she was on her deathbed and the family tried to get her to say her shahada. She is doing better now. Duha's uncle wasn't allowed out either, as the IDF doesn't generally let men leave Gaza, and she said that if he had been able to come, things would have been easier.
Final Thoughts
I think this was my most difficult deployment. The stories I heard were heartbreaking and left a lasting impact on me. During the final reflection session I spoke of my intentions at the start of the deployment and I feel like I have met them. One thing which has lingered with me was a question our deployment lead had asked: what is our purpose? That's something I am still figuring out but I think it's something we should all think about.
I would like to thank everyone who donated to make this deployment happen. I hope I have documented and showcased where the funds have gone and have helped to carry the voices of the unheard.
If you would like to get involved then please check out Salam Charity, and you can continue to support my work by checking out my next fundraiser for Bangladesh.