A 31-year-old Palestinian who says he fled Gaza described a 12-hour jet ski voyage from Libya that ended with a rescue off the Italian island of Lampedusa, an unusual landing recorded by authorities and confirmed by the U.N. refugee agency.
Muhammad Abu Dakha told Reuters he left the Gaza Strip after crossing into Egypt at Rafah in April 2024, paying about $5,000 to get out of the territory devastated by the nearly two-year-old Israel-Hamas war. Gaza health authorities say more than 64,000 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting.
Abu Dakha said he initially travelled to China hoping to seek asylum, and shared email correspondence with UNHCR’s China representation dated August and September 2024. After that effort failed, he returned to Egypt via Malaysia and Indonesia and then went to Libya, where rights groups and U.N. reports have documented widespread abuse and exploitation of migrants by traffickers and militias.
According to Italy’s interior ministry, more than 47,000 people had arrived in Italy by boat in the year to date, primarily from Libya and Tunisia. Abu Dakha said he made 10 failed crossing attempts with smugglers before buying a used Yamaha jet ski on a Libyan online marketplace for about $5,000 and spending another roughly $1,500 on equipment including a GPS unit, a satellite phone and life jackets.
He and two other Palestinian men, identified by Reuters as 27-year-old Diaa and 23-year-old Bassem, set out towing a dinghy with extra supplies. Abu Dakha said he drove the jet ski for about 12 hours and that the group saw off a pursuing Tunisian patrol boat. He said they used an artificial intelligence tool to estimate fuel needs but still ran out of fuel about 20 kilometres (12 miles) short of Lampedusa and called for assistance.
A Romanian patrol boat taking part in a Frontex mission picked up the three men and brought them to Lampedusa on Aug. 18, a Frontex spokesperson said, describing the circumstances as "an unusual occurrence." Filippo Ungaro, a UNHCR Italy spokesperson, said authorities recorded their arrival after a jet ski journey from the Libyan port of al-Khoms, which is about 350 kilometres in a straight line from Lampedusa.
Abu Dakha shared videos, photographs and audio files of the trip with Reuters while staying at a migrant centre on Lampedusa; Reuters was able to verify some, but not all, aspects of his account. From Lampedusa the three men travelled by ferry to Sicily and were then transferred toward Genoa in northwestern Italy. Abu Dakha said the group escaped from a bus transporting them before reaching their assigned destination.
He provided a boarding card in his name for a low-cost flight from Genoa to Brussels Charleroi dated Aug. 23. From Brussels Abu Dakha said he took trains to Germany, travelling first to Cologne and then to Osnabrueck in Lower Saxony, where a relative drove him to Bramsche. He said he has applied for asylum in Germany and is awaiting a court examination; Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees declined to comment on his case for privacy reasons.
Abu Dakha’s relatives remain in Gaza. His father, Abdrabuh Souliman Abu Dakha, speaking from a tent camp in Khan Younis where the family’s home was destroyed, said his son had been financially comfortable before the war and that the family’s life had collapsed. Abu Dakha told Reuters he hoped to win the right to stay in Germany and reunite with his wife and two children, ages four and six, one of whom has a neurological condition requiring medical care.
The route and methods behind Abu Dakha’s crossing highlight the dangers and improvisation used by some migrants attempting to reach Europe. Human rights organizations and U.N. agencies have repeatedly warned that migrants in Libya face detention, violence and exploitation while trying to secure passage to Europe. Authorities and aid agencies say arrivals to Italy have continued at significant levels this year despite expanded patrols and border operations.
A photograph published by local media showed the jet ski beached after the rescue and transfer to Lampedusa.
Reuters, which interviewed Abu Dakha and his travel companions on arrival and spoke with family members in Gaza, reported that elements of the story could not be independently confirmed. The account underscores the broader movement of people from conflict zones to Europe and the lengths some undertake to seek refuge and reunification with family members abroad.