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, as well as their relatives in the Gaza Strip.

Fleeing the devastation caused by the nearly two-year-old Israel-Hamas war — in which Gaza health authorities say more than 57,000 Palestinians have been killed — Abu Dakha crossed the Rafah border point into Egypt in April 2024, paying $5,000 US.

He said he initially went to China, where he hoped to win asylum, but after that failed, he returned to Egypt, via Malaysia and I

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