Palestinian fled Gaza, rode jet ski to Europe : NPR

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4000x3000+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F89%2Fab%2Ff574e689477e82f8bb7518f61574%2F20250925-100417.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4000x3000+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F89%2Fab%2Ff574e689477e82f8bb7518f61574%2F20250925-100417.jpg" class="img" alt="Mohammed Abu Daqqa, a 31-year-old Palestinian who left Gaza, scrolls through images on his phone at a refugee welcome center in Germany. He describes how he rode a jet ski across the Mediterranean to take refuge in Europe, and is determined to get his family out of Gaza." fetchpriority="high"/> Mohammed Abu Daqqa, a 31-year-old Palestinian who left Gaza, scrolls via photos on his cellphone at a refugee welcome middle in Germany. He describes how he rode a jet ski throughout the Mediterranean to take refuge in Europe, and is decided to get his household out of Gaza. Ruth Sherlock/NPR conceal caption

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Ruth Sherlock/NPR OSNABRÜCK, Germany — They're a tiny speck rushing throughout the Mediterranean Sea. Three males in odd road garments — observe pants, coats over life jackets, a "Free Palestine" cap — sit astride a jet ski, gripping one another tightly as they drive full throttle throughout the huge expanse of blue water.

The boys are all Palestinians from Gaza, and their mission is to succeed in Europe. They left Libyan shores below the duvet of darkness one August evening and set a course for the Italian island of Lampedusa — taking their lives into their very own arms to discover a protected nation for themselves and their households. Many try this harmful 186-mile journey in overcrowded smugglers' boats, however that is the primary recognized try on a jet ski.

"I take a look at these images and assume 'I nonetheless cannot consider I did that,'" says Mohammed Abu Daqqa, 31, the motive force of the jet ski, as he scrolls via his cellphone at a refugee welcome middle in Germany, the place he now stays.

The movies and images Abu Daqqa posted of the journey have been shared hundreds of thousands of occasions on social media. However Abu Daqqa takes little pleasure on this fame. He has a spouse and two younger boys — Sanad, age 6, and Mahmoud, 4 — who're nonetheless in Gaza. All of this has been to attempt to get them out, and this stays his solely focus.

In Gaza, Abu Daqqa had constructed a profitable enterprise offering web to components of the territory, and importing items. By 2023, he had two properties — the household's predominant residence and a newly constructed farmhouse with land in Khan Younis. He purchased a brand new automobile.

After the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7 of that 12 months, every little thing modified. "In a single single second, the longer term I dreamed of was gone," Abu Daqqa says.

Within the ensuing Israeli offensive, every little thing Abu Daqqa owned — his enterprise, his automobile, his properties — has been destroyed. Abu Daqqa says greater than 250 members of his prolonged household have been killed, within the offensive that has killed greater than 69,000 folks, based on the Gaza Well being Ministry. His spouse and kids have survived a number of displacements. For months now, they've lived in a tent in a crowded encampment on the seashore. As famine gripped components of Gaza, they too went hungry.

In April 2024, Abu Daqqa paid hundreds of {dollars} for a uncommon probability to depart Gaza through the Rafah border crossing to Egypt. The plan was for his household to comply with, however then Israel took management of the border, closing off this risk. Since then, Abu Daqqa has needed to watch his kids endure from a distance — within the images his spouse and relations have despatched of his kids holding empty pans as they seek for meals, or of their voice notes the place they plead to be reunited with him.

The picturesque western German metropolis Osnabrück, the place he now stays, is surrounded by fields with horses and white picket fences. It jars with the nightmare he lives day by day, worrying about his household, wishing he could possibly be with them, and residing in terror of receiving information from Gaza that the worst has occurred to his spouse and kids.

After leaving Gaza, Abu Daqqa utilized for visas to international locations the place he hoped to assert asylum and convey his household. He says his functions to Arab states, together with Morocco and the United Arab Emirates, have been all rejected. He went additional afield, to China, the place he'd beforehand made enterprise journeys. He confirmed NPR an e mail correspondence with the U.N. refugee company, UNHCR, in Beijing, requesting asylum. However earlier than the declare was processed, he says, police in China detained him for every week after which pressured him to depart the nation. He ended up in Malaysia and Indonesia. "The world just isn't open to folks from Gaza," he says.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3488x3488+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F2a%2F8c%2Fdb11f96946b492eea103c2ca9c2a%2F2025-09-15t080042z-1302995525-rc2w8gaxc4ax-rtrmadp-3-migration-europe-gaza.JPG" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3488x3488+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F2a%2F8c%2Fdb11f96946b492eea103c2ca9c2a%2F2025-09-15t080042z-1302995525-rc2w8gaxc4ax-rtrmadp-3-migration-europe-gaza.JPG" class="img" alt="Mohammed Abu Daqqa, a 31-year-old Palestinian from Gaza, poses for a selfie with two other Palestinians near Khums, Libya, Aug. 17, before taking a jet ski to Lampedusa, Italy." loading="lazy"/> Mohammed Abu Daqqa, a 31-year-old Palestinian from Gaza, poses for a selfie with two different Palestinians close to Khums, Libya, Aug. 17, earlier than taking a jet ski to Lampedusa, Italy. Mohammed Abu Daqqa/Reuters conceal caption

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Mohammed Abu Daqqa/Reuters He traveled to Libya and stayed with relations in Tripoli. There, he imported bikes from China with the hope of beginning a home-delivery service to earn cash to ship to his household in Gaza. However on March 20, Abu Daqqa obtained information that an Israeli airstrike on his uncle's dwelling had killed everybody inside. His niece, Ella Osama Abu Daqqa, was the one survivor. She was simply 25 days outdated — nearly a new child, discovered within the concrete rubble. And two months later, his own residence — the final one nonetheless standing — was destroyed.

"I knew there was no time left," Abu Daqqa says. "I needed to get my household out of Gaza and convey them to me."

Abu Daqqa determined to pay smugglers in Libya to cross by boat to Italy, in a journey the place hundreds of migrants drown every year. However this concerned ready many weeks for a possibility to go. He felt he did not have that point.

At first, he says, the thought of utilizing a jet ski was only a loopy thought. There have been so many questions: Might this passion craft actually make it 186 miles throughout the Mediterranean? What if he obtained caught in a storm? What about carrying sufficient gasoline?

Abu Daqqa researched the thought utilizing ChatGPT. It simply would possibly work, he determined. He purchased a jet ski at a market within the Libyan capital Tripoli for $5,000. Abu Daqqa exhibits movies set to music of him driving his modern, silver and black machine, circling quick and joyously within the waves, testing its pace and agility. He connected a rubber dinghy to the again to hold gasoline and meals, and met two different Palestinians from Gaza who determined to hitch him.

At round 1 a.m. on Aug. 17, they climbed on the jet ski and set off into the darkish water. "The primary 70 kilometers, there have been 2-meter waves, 3-meter waves," he says, till out of the blue the ocean grew to become calm. He exhibits NPR a video of the three males celebrating, nearly delirious with happiness to have made it to this point.

They saved going till they ran out of gasoline about 12 miles off the coast of Lampedusa. Abu Daqqa used his satellite tv for pc cellphone to name a cousin in Germany, who communicated with a migrant rescue hotline, they usually have been rescued by a passing Romanian patrol boat.

"It was a really emotional second. I used to be crying and laughing on the similar time," he says.

Abu Daqqa was delivered to Italy, however he did not keep there lengthy. As a substitute, he traveled to Germany, the place he utilized for asylum, hoping the authorities will permit his household to hitch him.

The information of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has introduced some peace of thoughts, however his household is from part of Gaza near the border that the Israeli navy nonetheless controls. A lot of the territory is destroyed. His oldest son, 6-year-old Sanad, despatched him a voice be aware the day the ceasefire was introduced in early October, saying he hopes they go away Gaza now. However it's not that easy. Caught within the bureaucratic procedures of looking for asylum, Abu Daqqa nonetheless does not know if or when he'll be reunited along with his household.

Abu Daqqa says had he recognized when he left Gaza greater than a 12 months and half in the past how tough it will be to discover a protected nation to deliver his household to, he wouldn't have left. He says he would have stayed with them, struggling along with the fear of the bombardments and starvation.