Anas is 25 years old. He is the oldest child with seven siblings. His father was martyred and as the oldest son he holds himself responsible for protecting and supporting his family as best he can.
He was born with a severe form of polio, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down as a baby. Despite this condition he describes his life prior to October 7th as a “beautiful life, surrounded by friends and family”.
Anas began playing basketball in 2019. He plays defense for his team and is proud of the fact that he is the fastest member of his team, which was the top ranked in Palestine. He represents his team and country with pride, traveling and playing basketball representing Gaza in the spirit of joyous competition and showing the world the strength of the people of Palestine. He dreams of playing in England and the United States and showing the world the capacity of the Palestinians.
His life now is the most difficult and the worst days beyond anything that he could have ever imagined facing. Even as the ceasefire has made life temporarily safer Anas struggles with the effort of traveling back to his home in a broken wheelchair.
Despite the horrors and pain that he has to deal with, and the loss of his father, who was murdered by the Israeli army, Anas has found ways to contribute and help people in Gaza.
Anas, with the help of people who have supported his efforts, founded “Shams Al-Hurriyah” “Suns of Freedom”. “Shams”, according to Anas is “the sun in which the light will shine on Gaza and Palestine. Freedom is the release of Gaza, which has been besieged by the Israeli occupation for many years. This is still happening and besieging us and preventing us from everything we want to do. Freedom will come to Palestine. This means a lot to me that one day Shams of Freedom will be a big hand and a contributor to helping people in Gaza.”
Shams of Freedom provides aid and resources as they get them to everyone but he is particularly focused on providing assistance to orphans and to the disabled.
I asked Anas if there was anything that he particularly wanted for himself. He kept answering how he wanted things for other people. After four or five questions he finally mentioned that he would like to get a wheelchair. Anas refuses to take a dime of donations dedicated to his foundation for himself so he makes do with what he has, even though what he has is barely functioning which leaves his family responsible for him physically.
Anas is driven by his focus on helping others. He is incredibly dedicated to doing what he can to reduce the misery that he sees around him even as he personally suffers with tremendous hunger and pain in his feet and body.
His work in helping others has helped him tremendously - he is too busy helping others to completely focus on his personal suffering. Even as he is working with his family to figure out the logistics of how to get home he is planning an online art challenge and a virtual walkathon in May to raise awareness and funds to support his people. Anas and his team are also working on applying for formal charity non profit status in London in order to apply for grants and get larger donations.
Authors note: Anas might very well be the strongest person I have ever had the pleasure of interviewing. I have been interviewing Gazans for the past six months. Every single one is facing the brutality of the world with tremendous courage and dignity. Men like Anas continue to astound me and prove every single day that the people of Palestine are the kindest and most generous people on earth.
Anas asked to share his Sun of Freedom account:
https://www.instagram.com/the_sunoffreedom
He did not ask that I share his personal gofundme page as he is 100% focused on helping others but I want to share his fundraising page regardless.
https://chuffed.org/project/149136-help-anas-and-his-family-of-15-escape-to-safety
Thank you so much for sharing this story 🙏🏻🫶🏻 so inspiring & heartbreaking. What an incredible person
What an incredible young man!!!