This Palestinian spent more than a year trying to escape Gaza... And he finally did it on a jet ski and with the help of ChatGPT
"That's why I risked my life on a jet ski," he said. "Without my family, life has no meaning."
It's the kind of story that sounds too wild to be true, but it is. Muhammad Abu Dakha, a 31-year-old Palestinian from Gaza, has pulled off one of the most daring escapes of recent years: he reached Europe not on a crowded smuggler's boat, but on a jet ski.
For over a year, Abu Dakha chased freedom across continents. He crossed into Egypt, spent thousands of dollars trying to secure safe passage, and even flew all the way to China in hopes of asylum. That plan failed, sending him back through Malaysia and Indonesia before he landed in Libya, a notorious hub where migrants are extorted, abused, and left at the mercy of armed militias.
Ten times he tried to cross the Mediterranean with smugglers. Ten times he failed. But instead of giving up, Abu Dakha did something nobody expected: he logged onto a Libyan marketplace, bought a second-hand Yamaha jet ski for $5,000, and outfitted it like a survival craft. GPS, satellite phone, life jackets, even a dinghy tied to the back for extra supplies. He was done relying on traffickers. This time, he would take destiny into his own hands.
On August 17, alongside two fellow Palestinians, 27-year-old Diaa and 23-year-old Bassem, Abu Dakha launched into the open sea. Twelve hours of roaring waves and burning fuel lay ahead. At one point, a Tunisian patrol boat tried to chase them down. They pushed harder, clinging to hope and adrenaline.
Their calculations, done with the help of ChatGPT, told them how much fuel they needed. But machines don't always account for the chaos of real life. The trio ran dry just 20 kilometers short of Lampedusa, Italy. With nothing left but the endless horizon, they sent out a desperate call. A Romanian patrol boat, part of the EU's Frontex mission, spotted them and brought them ashore.
"It was a very difficult journey, but we were adventurers," Bassem later said. "We had strong hope that we would arrive, and God gave us strength." From the Libyan port of al-Khoms to Lampedusa is a straight line of 350 kilometers, a trip nobody thought could be completed on a jet ski. Yet Abu Dakha did it. And his odyssey didn't stop there.
After landing in Italy, he and his companions were transferred by ferry to Sicily, then placed on a bus toward Genoa. But they weren't ready to be processed just yet. In a daring move, they slipped away, hid in bushes, and waited. A few hours later, Abu Dakha boarded a budget flight from Genoa to Brussels, clutching a boarding pass in his own name. From Belgium, he rode the trains north until he reached Germany, where a relative picked him up and gave him temporary shelter.
Today, Abu Dakha lives in a German asylum center in Lower Saxony. He has no job and no income, but he has what he risked everything for: a chance. His wife and two children, still trapped in Gaza, living in a tent camp after their home was destroyed, remain the reason behind his impossible journey. One of his children suffers from a neurological condition that requires medical treatment.
"That's why I risked my life on a jet ski," he told reporters. "Without my family, life has no meaning." From Gaza's ruins to the open waters of the Mediterranean, from Tunisia's patrol boats to Germany's asylum system, Abu Dakha's escape is more than a migrant story. It's the saga of a man who gambled everything on one last shot, and made history with the roar of a jet ski engine.