Politics
Muhammad Abu Dakha’s daring escape story
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.
Fleeing the devastation caused by the nearly two-year-old Israel-led war, in which Gaza health authorities say nearly 65,000 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 Malaysia and Indonesia, after that failed. He showed Reuters email correspondence with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) Representation in China from August and September 2024.
Abu Dakha then went to Libya where, according to multiple reports by human rights groups and the UN, tens of thousands of migrants are routinely abused and exploited by traffickers and militias while trying to secure a spot on a boat to Europe.
According to data from Italy’s interior ministry, more than 47,000 boat migrants have arrived in the country in the year to date, mostly from Libya and Tunisia. But Abu Dakha made it across in highly unusual circumstances.
After 10 failed crossing attempts with smugglers, he said he purchased a used Yamaha jet ski for about $5,000 through a Libyan online marketplace and invested another $1,500 in equipment, including a GPS, a satellite phone and life jackets.
Accompanied by two other Palestinians, 27-year-old Diaa and 23-year-old Bassem, he said he drove the jet ski for about 12 hours, seeing off a chasing Tunisian patrol boat, all while towing a dinghy with extra supplies.
The trio used ChatGPT to calculate how much fuel they would need, but still ran out some 20 km (12 miles) shy of Lampedusa. They managed to call for help, prompting a rescue and their landing on Italy’s southernmost island on August 18.
They were picked up by a Romanian patrol boat taking part in a Frontex mission, a spokesperson for the European Union’s border agency said, describing the circumstances as “an unusual occurrence.”
“It was a very difficult journey, but we were adventurers. We had strong hope that we would arrive, and God gave us strength,” said Bassem, who did not share his surname.
“The way they came was pretty unique,” said Filippo Ungaro, spokesperson for UNHCR Italy, confirming that authorities recorded their arrival in Italy after a jet ski journey from the Libyan port of al-Khoms and a rescue off Lampedusa.
In a straight line, al-Khoms is about 350 km from Lampedusa.
Abu Dakha contacted Reuters while staying in Lampedusa’s migrant centre, after being told by a member of the staff there that his arrival via jet ski had been reported by local media.
From that point he shared material and documents, although Reuters was unable to confirm certain aspects of his account.
From Lampedusa to Germany
From Lampedusa, the odyssey continued. The three men were taken by ferry to mainland Sicily, then transferred to Genoa in northwestern Italy, but escaped from the bus transporting them before getting to their destination.
A spokesperson for the Italian interior ministry said it had no specific information about the trio’s movements.
After hiding in bushes for a few hours, Abu Dakha took a plane from Genoa to Brussels. He shared with Reuters a boarding card in his name for a low-cost flight from Genoa to Brussels Charleroi, dated August 23.
From Brussels, he said he travelled to Germany, first taking a train to Cologne, then to Osnabrueck in Lower Saxony, where a relative picked him up by car and took him to Bramsche, a nearby town.
He says he has applied for asylum, and is waiting for a court to examine his application, with no date set yet for a hearing. He has no job or income and is staying in a local centre for asylum seekers.
Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees declined to comment on his case, citing privacy reasons.
Abu Dakha’s family remains in a tent camp in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, their home destroyed.
“He had an internet shop, and his work, thank God, was comfortable financially and everything. He had built things up, and it all collapsed,” said his father, Abdrabuh Souliman Abu Dakha, speaking from Gaza.
Abu Dakha hopes to win the right to stay in Germany, and bring over his wife and two children, aged four and six. He said one of them suffers from a neurological condition requiring medical care.
“That’s why I risked my life on a jet ski,” he said. “Without my family, life has no meaning.”
- Iran govt spox says received messages on resuming diplomacy.
- Nuclear sites, destroyed in Israeli strikes, will be rebuilt: Pezeshkian.
- Iranian scientists still had necessary nuclear know-how: president.
Iran said on Sunday that it would rebuild nuclear sites damaged by Israeli and US strikes “stronger than before”, as mediator Oman urged Tehran and Washington to revive stalled diplomacy.
US President Donald Trump has said the strikes obliterated Iran’s nuclear programme, but the full extent of the actual damage remains unknown.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, in a visit to the country’s nuclear organisation, said Tehran “will build (the destroyed sites) stronger than before”.
“By destroying buildings […] we will not be set back,” he said in a video posted to his official website, adding that Iranian scientists still had the necessary nuclear know-how.
Pezeshkian did not elaborate. In similar remarks in February before the strikes, he said Tehran would rebuild its sites if they came under attack.
Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign against Iran in June, kicking off a 12-day war that saw it target nuclear and military facilities — as well as residential areas — and kill many top scientists.
Iran retaliated with ballistic missile barrages aimed at Israeli cities.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in July, after the United States announced a halt in fighting, that the damage in Iran was “serious and severe”.
Pezeshkian’s comments came as Oman, Iran’s traditional intermediary, urged the two countries on Saturday to resume talks.
“We want to return to the negotiations between Iran (and) the United States,” Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said at the IISS Manama Dialogue conference in Bahrain.
Iranian government spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani said on Sunday that Tehran “has received messages” on resuming diplomacy, without providing further details.
Oman hosted five rounds of US-Iran talks this year. Just three days before the sixth round, Israel launched its strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Iran has since faced the return of UN sanctions after Britain, Germany and France triggered the “snapback” mechanism over Tehran’s alleged non-compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal.
Nearly 300 people have been killed in political violence in Bangladesh in the year since student-led protests toppled autocratic former leader Sheikh Hasina, the country’s main human rights group said on Sunday.
A report by Odhikar, a Dhaka-based rights organisation, said at least 281 people had been killed in violence involving political parties from August 2024, when Hasina’s rule ended and she fled to India, to September 2025.
On top of those, there were another 40 victims of extrajudicial killings who had been suspected of crimes, while another 153 were lynched, the quarterly report released last week said.
Odhikar director ASM Nasiruddin Elan said adherence to human rights had improved since the fall of Hasina’s government but law enforcement agencies were still not being held accountable.
“Yes, we don’t see the frequent extrajudicial killings or enforced disappearances that we witnessed during the Hasina era, but deaths in custody, bribery, and harassment of victims are still ongoing,” Elan told AFP.
He said that “innocent people fall prey to atrocities” for their alleged involvement with the Awami League, Hasina’s political party that is now banned.
Hasina’s 15-year rule saw widespread human rights abuses, including the mass detention and extrajudicial killing of her political opponents.
Odhikar also said mob attacks had been relatively frequent during the period, mainly because of inefficient policing.
“Police have been used to achieve party interests and were given impunity, which eventually led them to kill and torture activists affiliated with the opposition,” the report said.
It said “the police largely became dysfunctional and lost their morale”, after Hasina fell.
Bangladesh’s interim government nor any of the political parties have responded yet to Odhikar’s report.
- Hegseth meets Dong on Malaysia summit sidelines.
- Trump touts improved ties, tariff deal outline.
- Beijing urges policy-level dialogue to build trust.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Saturday that during talks with his Chinese counterpart, the two sides had agreed to reboot military-to-military links to “deconflict and deescalate”.
Hegseth met with China’s Defence Minister Dong Jun on the sidelines of a regional summit in Malaysia, a day after leaders Xi Jinping and Donald Trump held talks in South Korea.
“I just spoke to President Trump, and we agree — the relationship between the United States and China has never been better,” Hegseth said in a post on X, adding that he had spoken with Dong again since their face-to-face meeting.
“The Admiral and I agree that peace, stability, and good relations are the best path for our two great and strong countries,” he said, touting a path of “strength, mutual respect, and positive relations.”
The Pentagon chief said Dong and he “also agreed that we should set up military-to-military channels to deconflict and de-escalate any problems that arise.”
Such channels have existed for years but at times fallen out of use.
“We have more meetings on that coming soon,” Hegseth said without elaborating.
There was no immediate comment from Beijing.
According to a Chinese defence ministry readout of their meeting in Malaysia, Dong had told Hegseth the countries should “strengthen policy-level dialogue to enhance trust and dispel uncertainty”, and build a bilateral military relationship “characterised by equality, respect, peaceful coexistence and stable positive momentum.”
Last week, Trump said he had agreed to reduce tariffs on China to 47% in exchange for Beijing resuming US soybean purchases, keeping rare earths exports flowing and cracking down on the illicit trade of fentanyl.
His remarks came after face-to-face talks with Xi in the South Korean city of Busan, their first since 2019, marked the finale of Trump’s whirlwind Asia trip on which he also touted trade breakthroughs with South Korea, Japan and Southeast Asian nations.
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