ROCHESTER N.Y. (WROC) – A student at the University of Rochester shares how he’s working to get his family –in particular his brother who was shot in December — out of Gaza.
Abdalrahman Almallahi says he grew up in Gaza until age 16 –then got a scholarship to study in the Netherlands. Later he moved to Rochester to attend the university of Rochester.
His parents and two brothers remained in Gaza.
On December 9th—two months after the conflict between Israel and Hamas began Abdalrahman says he got a call– his older brother Dr. Hytham Almallahi was injured while working.
“He was in the ambulance treating someone or helping save someone in Gaza city and that’s when there was a lot of shots fired at the ambulance and everybody around him, they all died instantly. He got shot in his abdomen, so he got out and got shot again in his leg,” said Almallahi.
He says his brother started to crawl to a safer area and was met by another ambulance with a medical team who was able to stop him from bleeding out.
He says since then his brother has received very basic care and has developed an infection in the wounds due to unsanitary conditions.
“It was getting worse and he was going into a septic shock and that’s when my mother sent me through a third person this voice note saying do whatever you can,” he said.
From there Almallahi says he called every international organization that works underground in Gaza to explain his brother’s needs for medical attention but says it’s very difficult because of the location.
“I got no response from the red cross and then when I got a response from them it was like, yes we operate but not in north Gaza, where he is and my family is,” he said.
so he created a gofundme account to get hytham to a neighboring country with a hospital that can offer proper care.
“He had this obligation, a humanitarian duty to help the others but little did we know that one day he would need that help himself to save his life,” he said.
Almallahi says in addition to getting his brother the proper treatment, the funds will go towards medical bills, food, and to evacuate the rest of his family.
To provide support click here for the link to the GoFundMe account.
