Desperate student launches fundraiser to get her sister out of war-torn Gaza

dailyrecord.co.uk:

An Edinburgh University student is “desperate” to get her sister out of war-torn Gaza as soon as possible.Laila Saliekh, 26, said Katrena Saleh is currently sheltering in a tent in Rafah amid the conflict with Israel.She said: “Every second and minute is a threat on her life and we’re desperate to get her out as soon as possible.”Born in Ukraine along with her siblings, Laila’s family relocated to Gaza when they were children.She said her parents decided to leave for safety reasons, first moving back to Ukraine in 2020, before settling in Sweden when Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.Laila moved to Edinburgh in 2022 to study physics, while Katrena, 24, decided to stay at their home in northern Gaza to continue studying medicine at the Islamic University of Gaza.Laila said: “She’s been displaced four times since this all started and now she’s not far from the (Rafah) border, she’s in the ‘safe zone’ but it’s not safe.“Our house is gone, everyone is living in tents, where is she supposed to go?“I’ve lived through three wars but it seems like this one is horrible compared to the ones in the past - my friends told me this war is like the past three combined, that’s how horrible it is.”As Katrena holds both a Palestinian and Ukrainian passport, Laila said her family were hoping the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine or the Ukrainian Embassy in Israel or Egypt would be able to help in evacuating her but claims her sister has been denied.She added: “I sometimes feel like she’s going crazy, like laughing hysterically and saying she doesn’t care anymore - you get used to all these horrible things and it becomes part of your day.”“I have seen a lot of pictures of her and she seems to have lost a lot of weight,