Can You Send Money to Gaza via PayPal? Not Any More. Here Is Why.

People ask me this all the time. Can PayPal even reach Gaza? Is it blocked? Will fees eat up my donation? For two years the answer was yes and this page explained how. It is no longer true, so I have rewritten it.

I am Mohammed Al-Shanti, an agricultural engineer living in Northern Gaza. Donations keep my wife, my son Ibrahim and our baby daughter fed and sheltered. Below is the way to send one now.

Does PayPal Actually Work in Gaza?

No. PayPal is not available in Palestine, and as of September 2026 it is no longer a way to donate to my family at all.

This page used to explain how to donate by PayPal. That no longer works, so here is what does.

What Works Instead, and What It Costs

We now use GiveSendGo. On 19 September 2026 they verified my government ID and my bank details and confirmed me as the recipient of our fundraiser. They are one of the few platforms that still allow fundraising for families here.

Being honest about the cost, because this page used to promise zero fees. Card processing is never actually free. GiveSendGo does not charge a platform fee and instead asks donors for an optional tip to itself at checkout, which you can set to zero. Funds become available to transfer about three days after each donation, rather than the same day.

How to Give Now: Step by Step

Here is the exact process from your end. It takes about a minute.

1. Click any donate button on this site, or open our fundraiser directly.
2. You will land on our GiveSendGo page. It shows our name, our photo and the amount raised so far.
3. Enter any amount. There is no minimum.
4. Pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay. You do not need a GiveSendGo account.
5. If it offers a tip to GiveSendGo, you can set that to zero. That is between you and them.
6. You get a receipt by email. About three days later the money is available to us, and I post what it bought.

Do I Need an Account Anywhere?

No. On our GiveSendGo page you enter an amount and pay with a card. No account, no sign-up. It works with Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover, and with Apple Pay and Google Pay, from almost every country.

What About Wire Transfers or Other Methods?

Some donors have asked about wire transfers, Western Union, or crypto. Here is my honest assessment of each.

Wire transfers to Palestinian bank accounts are theoretically possible but extremely difficult in practice right now. International wire transfers to Gaza involve correspondent banking restrictions that make the process slow, uncertain, and often subject to holds. I do not recommend trying this path.

Western Union has faced operational issues in Gaza throughout the conflict. Availability is inconsistent and in-person pickup locations are not reliably accessible. Not a dependable option.

GoGetFunding hosted our campaign from 2023 and it is still there, with more than 45 updates, which is useful if you want to check our history. Its card payments ran through the PayPal account that closed, so it is no longer a way to give.

Cryptocurrency works and cannot be blocked by any company. In honesty, almost nobody uses it. In two years it has brought us close to nothing, because most people who want to help a family do not hold crypto. The wallets are on our crypto page if you are one of the people who do.

For most donors, the GiveSendGo fundraiser is now the way. For a large gift, write to me first and I will send bank details and the documents that prove who we are.

Is It Legal for Me to Send Money to Gaza?

This is an important question and the honest answer is: for the vast majority of donors in Western countries, yes, it is legal. Donating to a verified individual for humanitarian purposes is not restricted under standard financial regulations in the US, UK, EU, Canada, or Australia.

The restrictions that exist around financial transfers to conflict zones primarily target organizations or entities associated with sanctioned groups. A personal humanitarian donation to a verified Palestinian family is not in that category.

If you have specific concerns about the regulations in your country, I would recommend checking with your country's financial regulator or a legal advisor. But for most people reading this, the answer is simply yes, it is legal and your transaction will complete without any issue.

How Do I Know My Money Was Actually Received?

GiveSendGo emails you a receipt immediately after you donate. That is your proof of payment.

On my end, I photograph the receipts and post what was bought. If you want to follow the campaign and see where your money went, you can do that at any time.

I also update this website with diary entries when significant things happen, when the water truck finally came after four days of waiting, when flour prices dropped slightly, when Ibrahim asked me when he could go back to school. These are real updates from a real family. They are my accountability to you.

A Personal Note

I know that sending money to Gaza can feel uncertain. You cannot see where it goes. You are trusting a stranger. I understand that, and I respect it.

That is exactly why I built this website with a full verification page showing my government ID, my videos from Northern Gaza, and my expense receipts. I want you to check. I want you to be skeptical. And then I want you to see that everything I say is true, and I want you to help my family.

My daughter was born into this war, in December 2025. She has never known a Gaza that was not under siege. Your donation does not fix that. But it keeps her fed, clean, and sheltered for another few weeks. That is not nothing. That is everything to me.