THIS is the moment migrants entered Europe on a speeding jet ski they bought for $5,000 after driving it straight for 12 hours.
Muhammad Abu Dakha, a 31-year-old Palestinian, managed to escape Gaza along with his two pals in a year-long journey.
Palestinian migrants are seen driving a jet ski across the Mediterranean
A jet ski is beached before Muhammad Abu Dakha use it to sail to Lampedusa, Italy
Muhammad Abu Dakha poses for a selfie before sailing with two other Palestinian migrants to Lampedusa, Italy
Fleeing the devastation caused by the Israel-Hamas war, Abu Dakha paid $5,000 to cross the Rafah border point into Egypt in April 2024.
After getting out of Gaza, he initially went to China, hoping to seek asylum in the communist nation.
After his asylum bid was rejected, he returned to Egypt, via Malaysia and Indonesia, where he contacted human smugglers in a desperate bid to reach Europe.
But when Abu Dakha failed to cross the borders with smugglers for the 10th time, he decided to chart his own course.
“That’s when I started thinking of a new idea, the jet-ski idea,” Abu Dakha told Reuters, which documented his journey.
“At the beginning, I tried the jet ski that one of my relatives had, and I liked the idea. So I started planning for it.”
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 – 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 miles shy of Lampedusa.
They then managed to call for help using their satellite phone, before landing on Italy’s southernmost island.
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.
Bassem said: “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.”
Filippo Ungaro, spokesperson for UNHCR Italy, said: “The way they came was pretty unique.”
Ungaro confirmed that authorities recorded their arrival in Italy after a jet ski journey from the Libyan port of al-Khoms and a rescue off Lampedusa.
There, they escaped during a bus transfer from Sicily to Genoa, hiding in bushes for hours before Abu Dakha caught a flight from Genoa to Brussels.
The trio escaped Gaza using a $5,000 jet ski and
Muhammad Abu Dakha takes a selfie at the train station in Brussels
From Brussels, he said he travelled to Germany, first taking a train to Cologne, then to Osnabrück in Lower Saxony, where a relative picked him up by car and took him to Bramsche, a nearby town.
A spokesperson for the Italian interior ministry said it had no specific information about the trio’s movements.
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 total journey cost him more than $11,500 (£8,460).
His family remains in a tent camp in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, their home destroyed.
Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages – sparking a massive military retaliation from Tel Aviv.
Israel‘s military assault against Hamas has killed over 64,000 Palestinians, Gaza’s health ministry says.
Strikes pounded Gaza city overnight
Israeli army vehicles are deployed across the border fence in the Gaza Strip 
