I used to dream of being a doctor in the UK. Now I’m searching for ways to survive in Palestine

As campaigners call on the UK government to do more to support Palestinians affected by war, Mohammed shares his family’s story of fleeing Gaza and why it is so vital the UK government steps up.

I fled Gaza with my family and I am displaced in Rafah. The situation here is really challenging. It’s the same challenges and hardships that we have been talking about for over six months now, but no government has taken a true step to end this horrible situation and end this war and genocide.

There are 1.5 million people living in Rafah, an area that is around 5km. We are queuing for bread, little bread to be honest. We are queuing for water which is not humanly clean to drink. There are shortages in everything, medication and goods. It takes 10 times the effort we spend normally to get our basic needs.

My brother queues for water and bread with me as well. We’re searching for wood for my mum to cook on a wood fire due to scarcity of cooking gas. Rafah is supposed to be a safe place but we hear bombardments all around and we are terrified.

Israel is also threatening to invade Rafah and I am really concerned and worried about this as we have no other place to go. Our house is destroyed and completely burnt. I could get nothing but a couple of medical books, half burnt, out of it. It’s completely turned into ash. We have no place to return to. 

This stress and this worry forced me to fundraise to try to get my family to Egypt. The only way to get to Egypt is through paying to have a company which coordinates some kind of an Egyptian permit, and we need to pay a hell of a lot of money just to get out. You will see many Gazans doing fundraisers to get to Egypt. It’s an unknown future over there in Egypt but at least we are safe, we can escape this hell and escape this war.

Last July was the first time I left the Gaza borders. I spent two months in the UK after I was selected for a medical elective programme by the University of Oxford. I spent two months training there. Those two months were the best time of my entire life. I admired the methods of teaching, the techniques, the advance of the care system and general facilities.

• ‘Helpless’ UK residents call for Home Office to help get families out of Gaza: ‘We feel betrayed’
• My cousin was killed in front of his six-year-old son. I need to get my family out of Gaza
• My family faced hell on earth in Gaza. Leaving was their only option for survival
• I lost 200 members of my family to war in Gaza. I feel betrayed by the UK government

I saw a different world out of Gaza. I saw new people, a new culture. I visited different places. I went to London. It was a very interesting experience. I wanted to get back to Gaza and finish my final year and then come back to the UK and train and become a good surgeon and then return back to Gaza and open my own clinic there.

I was supposed to graduate in July 2024 but my life turned upside down. Just three weeks after I returned to Gaza, this whole thing started. I returned to Gaza with passion and motivation to complete my final year at medical school and return to the UK, but just now I’m searching for ways to survive. I went from dreaming of completing my training in the UK to searching for ways to survive and trying to get my family to a safe place.

We have managed to pay for my permit and my brother’s permit to get to Egypt and we’ll be there in about two days or so. This week, we managed to pay for my parents and my two sisters who will be in Egypt in two weeks. This just leaves my eldest sister’s family, her husband and her one-year-old daughter. 

All I am looking for now is to get my family out of Gaza as soon as possible to a safe place, and to think how it would be possible to complete my medical degree. It’s an unknown future in Egypt but hope is the only thing that is holding us to this life.

We are living in a true crisis but I hope for a way out for me and my family and to start anew. Gaza is completely wiped out. There are no universities, no hospitals. There is no life. It’s chaos. It’s mad and beyond belief.

It was Eid this week, an Islamic occasion which occurs after Ramadan. Eid has started but still, we are being killed. We are being bombed. The sounds of bombardments and war are so terrifying. We have no place to return to, no place to gather as a family. We are in Rafah with the crowding, the high demand of everything, queuing for hours, basic necessities all in shortage. I never thought Eid would occur in such circumstances.

In the middle of November, my cousin was killed. He’s the father of six children. His children used to gather around meal tables with him and they used to be so happy. Today was Eid and before Eid was Ramadan and. They couldn’t have all these occasions with their father because he was killed in November. Today when I looked into their eyes, I just saw misery, sorrow and sadness. These are children who don’t have their father. I don’t know how they will manage to live their lives.

Sign the petition to support a Ukraine-style family visa scheme for Palestinians here.

Response from the Home Office to calls for a Ukraine-style family visa scheme for Palestinians

A spokesperson from the Home Office said: “We are working around the clock to get British Nationals who want to leave out of Gaza. We have a team on the ground in Cairo and at the Rafah crossing providing consular assistance.

“We currently have no plans to establish a separate route for Palestinians to come to the UK. However, any dependants of British citizens who need a visa can apply for one.”