A Palestinian father based in Dublin, recently reunited with his family, fears they may be homeless within two months. Salah Altanany, 31, his spouse Asil Alshabrawi and their two kids, four-year-old Celine and Mohamed, 19 months, are currently residing in a house in Harold’s Cross, south Dublin, provided by the Irish Red Cross. However, the accommodation, a property owned by a church, is only available until July.
Mr. Altanany awaits his Personal Public Service (PPS) number, which is needed to apply for housing assistance. Despite his two-year residence in Rathdowney, Co Laois, he is keen to remain in Dublin to allow his wife to benefit from counselling services.
Having fled a life blighted with “airstrikes, bombings, assassinations”, he moved to Ireland two years earlier, planning family reunification post securing refugee status. However, just weeks before the Oct 7 Hamas attack on Israel initiated the Gaza war, his paperwork arrived.
Despite requests to the Red Cross and Irish embassy for help in adding his family to the border list, he was told assistance was only offered to Irish citizens and Gaza-based dependents. After a five-month wait and dwindling hope, he reluctantly set up a Gofundme page to raise the €5,000 per person needed to cross the border into Egypt. Salah stresses that, without creating the Gofundme, there is absolutely no doubt he would have lost his family.
The day after arriving in Ireland, Asil received devastating news that her family’s house in Jabilia was decimated in a bombing, taking the life of her 18-year-old sister. The past six months in Gaza, Asil confides, were an unbearable ordeal. Interminable fear, rampant bombing, scarce food and water supplies, and a ceaseless sense of dread dominated her days. She would frequently message her husband on WhatsApp asking him not to mourn their potential deaths.
In the words of Ms Alshabrawi, “In those times of explosions, we fell to the ground, our bodies on our palms and knees, surrounded by cries questioning our survival. The echoes of people trapped under the debris were a recurring nightmare, but we couldn’t assist them.”
She cinematicly describes sprinting down the streets, her son strapped to her torso, her daughter tugged along, trying to escape the onslaught. “Witnessing those dying on the streets without any aid, was a sight my child Celine saw. Even today, she recounts moments watching helplessly as lives were lost. It’s an absolute marvel we made it out, a miracle repeated a million times.”
There was no necessity for Ms Alshabrawi to describe the horrors of war to her little daughter. “I never needed to, she witnessed it all firsthand. The terror induced nightmares, perpetual fear, incessant crying, and constant illness.”
Regarding the matter of the family’s housing, a representative from the Department of Justice indicated the minister is “profoundly conscious” of the Gaza turmoil. He’s collaborating with his counterparts at the Department of Foreign Affairs to “develop a unified national strategy towards this unstable, rapidly changing scenario, which includes operations to evacuate Irish nationals and their families that might need visa support.”
The Irish Red Cross revealed that the group assisted the family’s journey from Egypt to Ireland, and arranged for initial living quarters. However, they lack the finances to provide ongoing aid. “Our objective was to ensure housing for two months, facilitating family reunion but not offering mid to long-term housing solutions. Repeating this aid for other families in similar dire circumstances is also a possibility.”
The representative added that the family is receiving various support including social protection and engagement with housing aids. Though it’s a demanding situation for the family, the charity is exploring means to provide aid to as many families as possible with their limited resources.
Despite the ambiguity surrounding their living situation, Altanany expresses profound gratitude to the Irish people, particularly the contributors to his gofundme. “The kindness shown saved my family, and my gratitude is eternal. As an act of reciprocation, I’ve applied to be a part of the gardaí to give back to the Irish community.”
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