Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib
Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib is a Palestinian American humanitarian activist and blogger. He is the founder and executive director of Project Unified Assistance, a nonprofit organization working towards the establishment of a humanitarian airport in the Gaza Strip, to be run and operated by the United Nations.
Early life and education
Alkhatib's family is originally from the Gaza Strip. His grandparents had lived in Hamama and Ramla, but left in 1948 during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.Alkhatib was born in Saudi Arabia, where his father worked as a United Nations physician. He and his family returned to Gaza in 2000, and his father began working at the Jabalia refugee camp. Alkhatib's family was devoutly Muslim. As a child, Alkhatib hoped to become a politician or diplomat. At age 11, Alkhatib was caught in an Israeli airstrike, which killed three of his friends and left him with permanent hearing loss in his left ear.
Alkhatib left Gaza in 2005, at the age of 15, for a one-year-long U.S. Department of State-sponsored cultural exchange program. He spent the year in Pacifica, California, where he learned meditation from his host mother, a Buddhist and retired social worker. He also attended sessions with Living Room Dialogue, a Jewish-Palestinian group based in San Mateo, marking the first time he had spoken to Jews or Israelis.
Upon completing the program, Alkhatib attempted to return to Gaza via Egypt but was unable to do so. The abduction of an Israeli soldier had resulted in the closure of the Rafah border between Gaza and Egypt. Alkhatib remained in Egypt for months without being able to enter Gaza. He applied for and received political asylum in the U.S., where he finished high school at San Francisco Waldorf High School and went on to City College and the University of San Francisco, where he studied marketing and became interested in social entrepreneurship. In 2023, he earned a master's degree in intelligence studies at American Military University.
Career
Alkhatib has published work in The Atlantic, The Forward, Haaretz, Newsweek, The Times of Israel, The Jewish Chronicle, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Alkhatib is a Nonresident Senior Fellow with the Atlantic Council, and also leads the Realign For Palestine project, which pushed for nonviolence and the two-state solution for peace between Israel and Palestine.In June 2025, he appeared on a Surrounded episode by Jubilee Media.