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In a new report based on 1:1 interviews and available data, Win Without War Education Fund policy associate Raimy Khalife-Hamdan details the desperation of Palestinian families in the United States attempting to evacuate their families from Gaza through the use of GoFundMe, the failures of the U.S. government to help them, and what needs to be done.

The executive summary is below and the full report can be read here.

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Executive Summary:

Eight months after the horrific October 7 attacks and into the Israeli government’s brutal war in Gaza, nearly one thousand (known) American citizens, legal permanent residents, and family members of Americans remain trapped in the Gaza Strip with no clear avenue for escape. This report captures how the Biden administration and Members of Congress have systematically failed to coordinate evacuations for U.S. citizens, legal permanent residents, and their loved ones from the Gaza Strip after October 7. As a result of their government’s failures, Palestinian Americans in the U.S. have been forced to turn to alternative, expensive pathways to attempt to organize their loved ones’ escapes. To raise money to get people out, many have turned to crowdfunding platforms to pay the preposterously expensive fees to get their family members’ names on daily exit lists. But Palestinian Americans interviewed in this report are more than aware of the limitations of their fundraisers on saving their families, and since the Israeli government closed the sole exit out of Gaza open to Palestinians during the war – the Rafah border crossing – it has become clear that such an alternative cannot replace U.S. government action.