Planet Money did a really interesting episode on money in Gaza. Basically, bank branches don’t really exist, and physical paper money is really hard to come by, so getting money into Gaza is really hard.

Any money you donate would need to get past various embargoes to get to a Palestinian bank, then be passed to a person who can’t really access it.

gofundme is very strict so if theyre on gfm theyre either legit or you’d be refunded if not.

Keep in mind people in Gaza usually have English as a second/third/etc language, or don’t speak English at all, so often use templates to make their fundraisers. And obviously machine translation too.

Yes it is difficult to get money into Gaza but it does happen. I have a friend who evacuated in 2024 and he’s talked quite a bit about how it works; his friends and family who are still there do occasionally receive money from outside which lets them buy the extremely expensive vegetables and flour.

I couldn’t tell you for these people specifically, but this sort of thing is definitely an easy opportunity for scamming people. I’d only consider donating to people where there’s solid evidence that they are who they claim they are.

Some are for sure verified, and presumably some of the unverified ones are also legit. I’m sure at least one is fake, but we know that there are real ones, too.

gofundme isn’t supported in Palestine (or any surrounding countries, and surprisingly, not even israel) so at best you’re going through a middle man