Palestinian man reunited with wife and young children says family now facing homelessness

A Palestinian father, who was reunited with his wife and two young children in Dublin in mid-May, says his family could face homelessness in less than two months.

Salah Altanany (31) is living with his wife Asil Alshabrawi and their two children, Celine (4) and Mohamed (19 months) in a house provided by the Irish Red Cross in Harold’s Cross in south Dublin. However, the church-owned property is only available until July.

Mr Altanany is awaiting his PPS number so he can apply for the housing assistance payment but, after two years living in Rathdowney in Co Laois, is determined to keep his family in Dublin so his wife can access counselling services.

He moved here two years ago seeking asylum from a life of “air strikes, bombings, assassinations” and planned to apply for family reunification once he’d secured refugee status. However, his papers arrived just weeks before the October 7th Hamas assault on Israel which sparked the war in Gaza.

“They told me you don’t have an Irish passport so we can’t help you. I did ask the Red Cross and the Irish embassy to put their names on the list for the border but I waited five months and lost hope.” A Department of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman confirmed it can only assist Irish citizens and their dependents in Gaza.

A friend suggested he set up a gofundme page to secure the €5,000 needed per person to cross the border into Egypt.

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“I was embarrassed to ask for money but it was the only way. I believe now that if I didn’t do the gofundme I’d 100 per cent have lost my family.” The day after they arrived in Ireland, his wife’s family home in Jabilia was bombed. Ms Alshabrawi discovered her 18-year-old sister was dead one day after arriving in Dublin.

Her time in Gaza since October 2023 “were the worst months of all my life,” she says. “I’m 26 but those six months were like 600 years. It was so difficult – no food, no water, no peace, just pain, bombing, just scared, just running.”

She regularly told her husband over WhatsApp “don’t be sad if we die”.

“I told Salah, if we die, just remember us. Sometimes when there were explosions we’d just get down on the ground on our hands and legs. Everyone was screaming ‘are you alive’. Most nights we heard the sound of people under the rubble but we were unable to go out and help them.”

She recalls running along the street with her son tied to her chest, pulling her daughter along as they fled a bombardment. “There were people dying on the roads, no one could help them, Celine saw those people. She still talks about seeing people dying.

“It was a miracle we got out – a million times a miracle.”

Ms Alshabrawi never felt the need to explain the war to her young daughter. “I didn’t have to tell her, she saw everything herself. She had nightmares, she was always scared, always screaming, always ill.”

We sought to make accommodation available for a two-month period. This option facilitates family reunification but does not provide medium/long-term accommodation

—  Irish Red Cross

Asked to comment on the family’s situation, a Department of Justice spokesman said the minister was “acutely aware” of the Gaza crisis and is working with colleagues in the Department of Foreign Affairs to “ensure a co-ordinated national response to this volatile and evolving situation, including their work to evacuate Irish citizens and their families who may require visa assistance”.

A spokesman for the Irish Red Cross said the charity helped the family travel from Egypt to Ireland and provided temporary accommodation upon arrival, but that it did not have the funding to continue supporting the family.

“We sought to make accommodation available for a two-month period. This option facilitates family reunification but does not provide medium/long-term accommodation. It also allows for repeating this support for other families who might face a similar extremely difficult situation.”

The family is receiving a “range of supports”, including engagement with social protection and housing supports, he said.

The charity is conscious that this is an “extremely difficult situation for the family” but is “aiming to support as many families as possible, with very limited resources.”

Despite the uncertainty of their housing situation, Altanany is extremely grateful to the Irish people, particularly those who supported his gofundme. “They saved my family’s life, I’ll be grateful forever. That’s why I’ve applied to join the gardaí, I want to give something back to Irish society.”