Less than 48 hours after his arrival in Ireland with his wife and children, Ibrahim Isbaita received a text saying his neighbour had died following an Israeli air strike on a crowded market in Gaza city.
He was among 48 people believed to have been killed in the incident, according to local health authorities.
Just one hour after receiving the news, Isbaita admitted that even after 19 months of war he still does not know how to process the news when a friend or loved one dies.
“We are in the 21st century and people are dying because no one will take action,” he says.
“I no longer trust anyone speaking about humanity or children’s rights or women’s rights because it has lost all meaning. There are so many organisations speaking about humanity but they cannot open the border for aid. People are dying because there’s no food. When I speak with my brother, my nieces and nephews have nothing to eat. Palestinian lives have lost all meaning.”
In March, Israel cut off all aid supplies to the Gaza strip following the collapse of a two-month ceasefire. Aid agencies have warned that mass starvation is imminent, and Taoiseach Micheál Martin has accused Israel of a war crime by preventing aid from entering Gaza.
Hamas officials have said they are not interested in further peace talks while Israel continues the blockade.
Meanwhile, Israel voted last week to expand its military offensive, which could see the forced displacement of most of Gaza’s 2.1 million people and the indefinite occupation of all the Palestinian territory.
The war in Gaza began on October 7th, 2023, when Hamas killed nearly 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, according to Israeli officials. Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 52,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to Hamas-run health authorities.
Isbaita arrived in Dublin on May 5th as part of an evacuation programme for children with serious medical needs. His 13-year-old daughter Hayat was born with a hole in her heart and has been awaiting surgery since the war began.
Before the family left the Gaza strip last year, Isbaita worked as a journalist and producer, reporting on the war for international news outlets. He applied to come to Ireland through the Gaza Paediatric Care Initiative and had to leave his father behind in Egypt, where his mother died three months ago.
“We did this whole journey together from Gaza City, so the hardest thing was telling my father we were leaving,” he says.
“He’s still convinced we will do the surgery and go straight back to Egypt.”
Isbaita continues to send money to his brother in the Gaza strip, but says cash has become “worthless” as there’s “nothing left to buy”.
“I have survivor’s guilt, I can’t enjoy the moment of finally finding peace and getting surgery for my daughter,” he says.
“After everything we have been through – being in a tent for seven months, digging a hole in the ground to make your own bathroom – I can’t be happy when my family are still suffering.”
Marah Fawaz Nijim, who came to Ireland in April through the university of sanctuary scholarship programme to study at Limerick’s Mary Immaculate College, says it is impossible to settle when her parents and brothers are still in Gaza.
“It was always my dream to travel and complete my studies but now nothing feels special, I’m surrounded by sorrow,” she says.
“My parents said I needed to follow this chance and come to Ireland to finish my studies, it’s the saddest decision I ever made.”
I feel so guilty that I’m okay and my family are in danger. I knew I was going to die in Gaza but at least I’d die with my family
The 23-year-old recalls how her family, who were displaced from their home early in the war, would walk for hours to find electricity and internet access to contact her sister, who already lived in Ireland.
“We had no water, no electricity, no bathrooms. The worst was when my period came and I had no pads; it was so humiliating,” she adds.
“I feel so guilty that I’m okay and my family are in danger. I knew I was going to die in Gaza but at least I’d die with my family. Living in Gaza is waiting for your own death, waiting to become an orphan, waiting to starve, waiting to be bombed in your own home. All my neighbours were killed, I saw it with my own eyes. I can still hear their screams in my head at night, the sound of people burning, the smell of bodies burning.”
Fawaz Nijim says she just wants “to be a normal woman and live a normal life”.
“I’m so thankful to the Irish people and Irish Government for getting me here. And I’m trying to adjust. But I really hope the Government can accept the rest of my family to come here.”
Salah Altanany, who came to Ireland seeking asylum before the war, and brought his wife and two young children here last year after a fundraising drive and with support from the Irish embassy in Cairo, no longer knows what to say to his brothers and sisters still in Gaza.
“When I speak to them I feel scared and helpless, I have no words. I tell them to focus on buying food and surviving but my brother says there’s no more food.”
Altanany believes Israel has been given “an open licence” to continue withholding aid from Gaza and dropping bombs on the strip.
“They no longer need justification,” he says. “They’re no longer hiding their crimes, they’re proudly declaring them without fear or shame. I’ve lost two brothers, Asil [his wife] has lost her parents, brother and sister. We’re hoping we won’t lose any more but those who survive the bombing, can they survive the hunger?”
Asked how he feels about Hamas’s decision not to continue ceasefire talks and a hostage deal while humanitarian aid blockade continues, Altanay said Israel “doesn’t care about their hostages ... Hostages have just become an excuse for their war”.
Last week, Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu said rescuing the hostages was a “very important goal” but that “the supreme goal is to achieve victory over our enemies”.
On Monday Hamas said it would release Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander, who is believed to be the last living captive with US nationality in Gaza, in a bid to encourage a ceasefire agreement.
The move is being taken ahead of US President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East on Tuesday. Hamas said it was intended to facilitate a deal for the entry of humanitarian aid. Gaza has been under an Israeli blockade for 70 days.
For Altanay, the international community’s failure to intervene in the conflict has made the rest of the world “complicit” in the violence and starvation.
“I love Ireland, it saved my family’s life, and I’ll appreciate that forever,” he says.
But he feels that the Irish Government “is not doing enough” to lobby for the end of the conflict in the international community.
“Has humanity lost its compass, or is childhood in Gaza not part of the global agenda of mercy?”
