LAMPEDUSA, Italy – It took more than a year, several thousand dollars, ingenuity, setbacks and a jet ski: this is how Muhammad Abu Dakha, a 31-year-old Palestinian, managed to escape from Gaza to reach Europe.

He documented his story through videos, photographs and audio files, which he shared with Reuters. Reuters also interviewed him and his travel companions upon their arrival in Italy, and his relatives in the Gaza Strip. 3

Fleeing the devastation caused by the nearly two-year-old Israel-Hamas war, in which Gaza health authorities say more than 64,000 Palestinians have been killed, Abu Dakha crossed the Rafah border point into Egypt in April 2024, paying $5,000.

TO CHINA AND BACK

He said he initially went to China, where he hoped to win asylum, but returned to Egypt, via

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