Add Najwa Elsabbgh to the evacuation list!

Najwa Elsabbgh is 74 and is trapped in Northern Gaza. We demand that her name gets added to a list of adults and children who are due to be evacuated to Ireland in the coming weeks.
 
Najwa was granted a visa in February 2024 to come live in Ireland with her daughter Sherin Alsabbagh, an Irish citizen since 2022. Najwa has the approval from Israel to leave Gaza. To neglect to evacuate Najwa during this critical opportunity would be an abandonment of the Irish Government's obligation to protect its citizens and their immediate families. 

 

After being displaced more than 11 times, Najwa is back hiding in her home near Al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s biggest medical facility, which has been destroyed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) since October 7th, 2023. The IDF besieged the hospital in March and destroyed numerous surrounding neighborhoods, leaving Najwa’s own home partly destroyed after a deliberate tank shelling. Neighbors across the street were killed and they remain buried under the rubble.

 

Despite Sherin's repeated pleas, Najwa is still trapped in Gaza; the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Irish government have so far failed to provide a safe exit for her. It has now become a matter of extreme urgency for the Irish Government to act, as Najwa's health is in rapid decline after enduring a year of hardship under constant bombardments, starvation, sickness and repeated displacement. Najwa’s back and knees are bad from fleeing in panic over broken roads and dead bodies. She is weak from the lack of food and water. 

 

Every single person in Gaza means the world to their family, they are not merely numbers. Sherin fears she will not see her mother again. Time is against her, with the ramping up of the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, its intensity shows no signs of diminishing.

 

Najwa has already lost nearly 200 members of her close and extended family, her health is in decline. She has all her papers in order and has the legal right to be reunited with her daughter in Ireland. Put Najwa’s name on the evacuation list!