Young Gazans take the road to exile, heading for Europe, but not all of them succeed. In December 2022, the Palestinian Authorities repatriated the bodies of eight young people who died while crossing the Mediterranean.
At the entrance to a cemetery in Rafah, a headstone catches the eye. It contrasts with the others, as if it had been erected the day before. A 50-year-old Palestinian, Talal al-Shaer, prays for a few seconds and then squats down. “Here lies my son, Mohammad, he drowned at seasays the father of the family. He was looking for a better life, away from Gaza and the siege.”
Mohamed, 22, was the eldest. He died on October 4, 2022 while trying to reach Italy from Libya. There was also his 18-year-old brother, Maher, on the same boat that sank off the Tunisian coast. “We learned that eleven bodies had been found, but their features were not identifiablesays Talal al-Shaer. So we had to do DNA tests to reveal the identity of the drowned. There was one of my sons: Mohammed, we found him. But Maher, we still don’t know where he is.“
Under Israeli blockade for fifteen years, the Gaza Strip where more than two million people are crowded into a small territory of 360 km² is one of the highest population densities in the world. According to the latest United Nations report, almost 50% of Gazans live in a state of food insecurity. The unemployment rate affects 45% of the population of working age and exceeds 60% when it comes to young people. A “open-air prison”, say the latter, who are increasingly numerous in seeking to flee the coastal enclave.
Kidnapped in Libya
The two brothers Mohammed and Maher left Gaza in February 2022. First via the Rafah crossing, to Egypt, then to Libya, the beginning of hell. There, like thousands of candidates for exile to Europe, they are arrested by the local authorities as they attempt to set sail. Then, they are kidnapped in the middle of the night by armed groups experienced in trafficking. of human beings who haggle over the release of the two young people. “At first they asked for 18,000 Libyan dinars, and we told them we had no money.confides the father of the family. Afterwards, we negotiated with them, and in the end, we had to pay 5,000 Libyan dinars, or 1,000 euros. My boys were exhausted. So we realized that we had to get them out of there.”
“When they came out, we told them that enough was enough, that they should come back. But they refused. They are free, I couldn’t stop them.”
Talal al-Shaer, Palestinianat franceinfo
Mohammed, the older of the two brothers, wanted to become an electrician in Europe. Maher was an excellent hairdresser. He had opened a salon, which he had to close for lack of customers. In the Gaza Strip, under Israeli blockade, the prospects for a future are almost non-existent, many dream of a better life elsewhere. “If I had prevented them twenty times, they would not have listened to meregrets Talal al-Shaer. When they were here, at home, they had no work. And they saw all these young people emigrating, those who work and succeed. So they told me that they wanted to leave like them.” According to the Palestinian research center Masarat, nearly 36,000 Gazans have already left the enclave in the past five years to join another country.
These young Palestinians fleeing Gaza at the risk of their lives – Alice Froussard
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