“That’s when I started thinking of a new idea, the jet-ski idea,” Abu Dakha told Reuters, which documented his journey.
'Without my family, life has no meaning': Gaza man’s extraordinary escape. Photo / Getty Images
“At the beginning, I tried the jet ski that one of my relatives had, and I liked the idea. So I started planning for it.”
Trawling through a Libyan online marketplace, he bought a jet ski for US$5000 and spent another US$1500 on GPS equipment, a satellite phone, and life jackets.
“Within two months, we got a jet ski, checked the fuel, and calculated the distance and thought of how we will carry the fuel.”
Accompanied by two other Palestinians, 27-year-old Diaa and 23-year-old Bassem, Abu Dakha drove the jet ski for around 12 hours across the Mediterranean.
However, they ran out of fuel 20km from Lampedusa, Italy’s southernmost island.
A Romanian patrol boat rescued the three men and transported them to Lampedusa’s migrant centre, according to a spokesman for the European Union’s border agency.
There they escaped during a bus transfer from Sicily to Genoa, hiding in bushes for hours before Abu Dakha caught a flight from Genoa to Brussels.
His wife and two children remain in Gaza, living in a tent near Khan Younis. Photo / Getty Images
From Brussels, he said he travelled to Germany, first taking a train to Cologne, then to Osnabrück in Lower Saxony, where a relative picked him up by car and took him to Bramsche, a nearby town.
He says he has applied for asylum and is waiting for a court to examine his application, with no date set yet for a hearing. He has no job or income and is staying in a centre for asylum-seekers.
The war in Gaza has displaced most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents. Since the start of this month, according to Israeli estimates, about 250,000 people have fled. Many families have been displaced several times during the war.
Abu Dakha’s family remains in a tent camp in the southern parts of the enclave near Khan Younis.
His father said his son was never one to remain idle and could not stay in Gaza after his business and home were destroyed during the war.
Abu Dakha’s total journey cost him more than US$11,500 and reflects the desperation many asylum-seekers face to escape war and conflict for a better life.
Abu Dakha said he hopes to gain legal status in Germany and eventually bring his wife and two children to join him.
“That’s why I risked my life on a jet ski,” he said. “Without my family, life has no meaning.”
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