“I felt in danger” – Palestinian family reports how they fled the Gaza war and found refuge in Windsor

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Ahmad Ismail described his family’s escape from the Gaza Strip to the safety of Windsor as almost “Mission Impossible.”

It took 47 days after they left their home in the Gaza Strip — what Ismail calls an “open-air prison” since the October 7, 2023, cross-border attack by Hamas militants that sparked a deadly and ongoing conflict with Israel — before the family landed at Toronto Pearson Airport and then took the train to Windsor on Wednesday.

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Ismail, 41, and his wife Eman Alhabbash, 38, and their two children Janna, 14, and Abdullah, 5, were greeted at Windsor train station by a group of more than 60 “smiling faces”. – including local MP Brian Masse (NDP – Windsor-West).

“It felt like there was a big family here for us,” said Ismail.

“The large community that was there really touched us. Sometimes you can’t describe the feelings that arise after a war.”

“You feel homeless, some of your own family have already been killed. But then you look at those faces, they were so happy for us.”

The next day, Ismail sat at a friend’s house in Tecumseh, where the refugees will live temporarily until they settle in. He told the Star he felt like they had started “a new life” after a period of fear and uncertainty.

“We are in heaven,” he said. “The Canadians are so nice.”

The family was granted refugee status under a federal government temporary immigration program designed to help people fleeing the war-torn Gaza Strip in the Middle East.

But their journey began months earlier when they spoke to a long-time friend, Windsor resident Kiran Javed first contacted the family during the Gaza war in 2014 and has remained in touch since then.

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Javed said her conversations with the family – whom she had never met in person until Wednesday – changed over the past seven months. She often heard the sound of drones and bombs in the background of their phone conversations and regularly asked them if they were still alive.

One day she received a message from Ismail urging her to help the family: “If anything happens to me, take care of my children,” he wrote.

“I still get goosebumps, it hit me hard,” said Javed, who was sitting next to her own 12-year-old son. Fahad Hafez when she read Ismail’s message.

Javed said her son suggested helping the family escape to Windsor.

I felt danger, a lot of danger

The family has a good chance of being accepted into Canada’s temporary immigration program, she said, since Ismail is currently working on his doctorate and Alhabbash already has a master’s degree.

But before the conflict broke out, Ismail said they never believed they would ever have to leave their country.

“Life was really good,” he said.

“We had a house and a car. We went to local restaurants with our colleagues and friends. Everything was perfect.”

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But everything changed last year when militants from Hamas – which governs the Gaza Strip but is designated a terrorist group by the Canadian government – ​​attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages.

In response, Israel launched a large-scale invasion of Gaza, which has so far claimed more than 36,000 lives, according to Gaza health authorities, and triggered famine and catastrophic humanitarian conditions. — Thousands are forced to flee.

“I felt in danger, in great danger,” said Ismail. “I had to leave with my family. I had no choice.”

Escaping the Gaza Strip was the most difficult part of their journey, he said.

First, they looked for an “agent” in Egypt who would help them escape in exchange for money. Ismail said they had to pay $5,000 per person, which guaranteed their escape within a month. If they had paid more, about $13,000 to $15,000 per person, Ismail said, they could have escaped within a week.

Islamic Relief Canada, an iAn international humanitarian aid organization helped pay for the family’s plane tickets, allowing them to leave Egypt within 30 days.

Now that they are safely in Canada, Ismail says the next step is to find a job that will help them start their new life.

“We need to add something to this community,” he said, “until perhaps one day we can return to our country.”

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