WASHINGTON, D.C. – Hani Almadhoun says that for months he felt guilty after the war began between Hamas and Israel in early October. He was living safely in the Washington, D.C., area, while his family in Bait Lahia, in northern Gaza, was being bombed.
“I felt hopeless and didn’t see a reason to wake up in the mornings,” says the 42-year-old father of two daughters. He says he was struggling looking at images of his neighborhood being bombed and his family starving.
He is a Palestinian who came to the United States in 2000 on a college scholarship and is now a U.S. citizen. Almadhoun is a professional fundraiser. He’s the director of philanthropy at UNRWA USA, an American nonprofit that raises private sector funds and supports the work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, commonly known as UNRWA. The UN’s charity was created in 1949 to provide relief to Palestinians displaced by the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
After the current conflict began, Israel accused UNRWA of having Hamas supporters in its ranks. Last January the Biden administration “paused” U.S. funding to the U.N. organization, “citing allegations that 12 UNRWA employees were involved in the October 7, 2023, attacks led by Hamas (a U.S.- designated foreign terrorist organization) against Israel,” according to the Congressional Research Service, a U.S. Congress public policy research institute.
However, in February the UN's secretary general, in consultation with UNRWA officials, requested an independent outside review to assess Israel's accusations. In April, the Independent Review Groupfound that the Israeli government has provided no proof of their claims that UNRWA staff are involved in Hamas operations. The agency’s staff is made up of 30,000 employees.
On June 24 dozens of Israeli victims' families filed a lawsuit against UNRWA in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, accusing the agency of aiding and abetting the Hamas attack in Israel.
An UNRWA official confirmed to NPR that the lawsuit has been served though the agency declined to comment.
And though Almadhoun has fundraised millions of dollars on behalf of UNRWA USA for about two decades, he became increasingly frustrated with the lack of humanitarian aid reaching Gaza since the conflict began.
Watching a video of his sister Samah baking bread with animal feed last December was hard, Almadhoun says.
“That really broke me, but it also woke me up,” he says.
It pushed him to set up his own independent fundraising project, he says.
“We can only save ourselves”
In those first few months after the conflict started, Almadhoun tried to engage U.S. officials, attending meetings at the White House and the State Department, but he became discouraged, he says.
“Sometime in January, I realized that this is not about the United States,” he recalled thinking. “We can only save ourselves.”
After several phone calls with a younger brother, Mahmoud, who along with their parents and two sisters live in Bait Lahia, they agreed that setting up a food kitchen was key for their survival and the survival of their neighbors, especially children, Almadhoun says.
He created a GoFundMe in February. He set a goal to raise $25,000. Today, people are still giving, and so far he’s raised more than a million dollars.
And he’s not alone.
According to a GoFundMe spokesperson, since the Hamas-Israel conflict began on October 7, more than 30,000 GoFundme fundraisers have been launched on the platform and more than $190 million dollars has been raised from 4 million donations to help people in the region with medical care, food and evacuations, among other things.
Cash is one of the most important forms of aid when a natural disaster hits or war breaks out, according to the International Rescue Committee. “Providing cash directly to crisis-affected individuals is a dignified and effective form of humanitarian aid.”
More than 1,200 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas attack, according to the Israeli government. At least 240 hostages were taken and 116 have been released or rescued. Since that initial October attack, more than 38,000 Palestinian have been killed and over 89,000 have been wounded in Gaza, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
GoFundMe declined an interview with NPR, though a spokesperson answered questions via email.
“At GoFundMe, our mission is to help people help each other,” the email reads. “During humanitarian disasters and other crises, our role is to provide a platform where people can raise funds for those who need help quickly and safely,” while also elevating the personal stories of those in need.
The crowdfunding platform set up guidance for organizers fundraising on behalf of their families in Gaza, and the GoFundMe team works with organizers to understand the flow of funds and assure that they reach the intended beneficiary safely, the spokesperson tells NPR.
According to a recent World Bank report, Impacts of the Conflict in the Middle East on the Palestinian Economy, “the northern governorates of Gaza are experiencing a full-blown famine, with food insecurity reaching catastrophic levels.”
Brothers hatch a plan for survival
As the Almadhouns launched their GoFundMe fundraiser, the brothers decided Mahmoud would scout a place where he could set up the food kitchen in Bait Lahia, while Hani, in Virginia, would brainstorm about the logistics of getting funds to his brother.
The recent World Bank report on the Palestinian economy notes, “The financial sector has been significantly affected, both directly and indirectly.”
Banking infrastructures have been severely damaged or destroyed, and economic conditions have worsened, affecting the banking sector’s portfolio, according to the World Bank’s Impact report.
“There are many moving pieces, and it requires trust,” says Hani Almadhoun, referring to fund transfers to the Gaza region.
It requires the trust of donors and the trust from people willing to move the funds once in the region, he says.
Here’s how it works:
Hani Almadhoun sends funds from his bank account in Virginia to a friend’s account overseas, in a third country. His friend then transfers the money to Hani’s friend’s brother in southern Gaza where Almadhoun’s younger sister, Niveen, gets the cash.
Niveen, who is sheltering in Rafah, in south Gaza, then finds someone trustworthy who’s traveling from the south to the north to hand-deliver the funds to her and Hani’s brother Mahmoud in Bait Lahia.
Alternatively, if a family in the north, who the Almadhouns trust, needs to send funds to their family member in south Gaza, the money doesn’t travel. The two families give the money to each other in a simple “swap” of funds.
“The first time I sent money to my brother he went out and bought 200 bags of rice and distributed them to neighbors and relatives,” says Almadhoun, “he also bought tea, sugar, just basic stuff.”
Hani says he transfers between $12,000 to $18,000 dollars a week, and so far he’s transferred about $400,000 total to support the food kitchen.
Crowdfunding versus registered charities
Michael Thatcher is the President and CEO of Charity Navigator, the nation’s largest independent evaluator of nonprofits. The nongovernmental organization’s aim is to make it easier for donors to decide what charities to support.
Thatcher says that GoFundMe plays an important role in the philanthropic and fundraising spaces, and that it works best “if you know the GoFundMe organizers or the recipient because there's a level of connectivity in that gift that is quite beneficial,” to the success of the fundraiser. That connection makes people feel good about their donations, he says.
Otherwise Thatcher says, “you have limited recourse to understand how they’ve used your money.”
But GoFundMe’s spokesperson says that the platform has robust systems in place to keep it safe and accountable.
“To verify fundraisers, our Trust & Safety team uses proprietary tools on par with the financial industry and we work closely with our payment partners,” says the spokesperson, adding that GoFundMe verifies personal and banking information, and requires government-issued identification, address details, and other forms of ID, for example.
Plus, to ensure accountability, the spokesperson tells NPR, the GoFundMe team requests more information before funds can be withdrawn, if needed. “In the rare instances of misuse of our platform, our team takes swift action, including outright removal of the fundraiser — and in some cases even banning an account for violating our terms of service.”
Charity Navigator’s Thatcher acknowledges that even well-established charities could have more clarity as to what the money actually achieved. He says he’s working to change that.
“I think that's part of why GoFundMe has become interesting to people,” Thatcher says. "There is this feeling of ‘I see the impact my donation is making’ and that’s very appealing to people.”
Hani Almahoud updates his GoFundMe regularly with storytelling, pictures and videos that his siblings and friends in north Gaza share with him. He shows donors where their donations are going and its impact. He tells them what his siblings are cooking and how they are procuring food items and burning wood, for example.
From feeling hopeless to finding purpose
“What's happening in Gaza is overwhelming and beyond comprehension,” Hani Almadhoun says.
His younger brother, Majed, his brother’s wife and their four children were killed by a bomb last November. Almadhoun’s extended family has lost about 150 members since October 7, he says. His younger sister, Niveen, and her family had to be medically evacuated from north Gaza to Rafah, in the south, after being hit by a bomb in March. The family was rescued from the rubble, he says.
Hani says he’s thankful to GoFundMe — it has done due diligence making sure that the funds get to the recipients — asking extensive questions and documentation, he says. He’s also overwhelmed by the donors’ generosity.
Now, 33-year-old Mahmoud, a former cellphone shop keeper in north Gaza, their sister Faten, and a staff of 17, are cooking for neighbors every day, says Hani Almadhoun, feeding thousands a week. Regular items on the menu include zucchini or khubeza stew, a leafy green that grows naturally. It looks like kale, says Hani, and it tastes like a mixture of kale and spinach. The kitchen also makes bread and pies.
“But if they cook something with rice, that's when everybody shows up. It’s a favorite, but it’s very expensive now,” says Hani.
He has noticed that the food kitchen has had a positive effect on people. It lessens the pain and agony they feel, he says. Many have lost children, spouses, parents, siblings, and neighbors.
“The food kitchen allows for healing, whether you are preparing food or receiving it, it allows people to imagine hope,” he says.
Pride and hope are now back in his brother’s voice, Hani says.
“I hear it. My brother Mahmoud wakes up ready to serve people every day. He takes my sister Faten, aka Chef Faten,” he says with a chuckle, “and they make food for our family and others.”
When asked how he feels about his work collaborating with his brother thousands of miles away, he searches for an answer.
“It’s beautiful that we are doing this,” he says, taking a deep breath, “but we shouldn’t be doing it. There should be a bigger actor providing aid to Palestinians.” He says he wishes the U.S. government and the international community were giving Palestinians more aid. And though there are efforts to give more assistance, access-related issues continue to slow down aid operations, according to the World Food Program.
Hani Almadhoun’s feelings are mixed. "This project is something special,” he says, “because the immense joy I get when I wake up and see pictures of them getting food, especially children, it gives me hope.”
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