‘The texts are getting more desperate’: Irish-Palestinian woman fears for family in Gaza

An Irish-Palestinian woman has described the horror of trying to keep in touch with her relatives in Gaza.

Nyssan Deeb-Donnelly is one of six siblings from Lusk, Co Dublin, whose father Abraham fled his hometown of Gaza City in 1966.

Having fled Palestine, Abraham moved to Spain, where he met his future Irish wife Maeve. The couple moved to Dublin in 1975, where they have lived ever since.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Prime Time on Tuesday night, Nyssan described the constant worry she feels as Israel continues its bombardment of the enclave.

She has 20 relatives in the area, consisting of four families, including 13 children aged between four and 17.

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Nyssan said: "The texts are getting more desperate. What they're describing to us sounds, believe it or not, even more horrific.”

"They were issued evacuation orders only this morning with no place to go to,” she added, explaining that despite being without shelter, her relatives are just happy to be alive.

Nyssan commended the widespread solidarity displayed by Irish people in light of the conflict, but knows it doesn’t make her family’s situation any easier.

She added: “Even that text I got off my cousin yesterday, they have no tent now. It's like, ‘How could things actually get any worse?’

“But they'll send a text, they'll say the planes are flying really low overhead. You're like, ‘Jesus Christ, are they going to make it through the night?’ Is this going to be the night that they're going to die?

"Are we to assume it’s actually going to get worse, that they're all going to die? I don't know."

In light of the widespread violence, Nyssan and her siblings have made efforts to try and evacuate their cousins from the region.

She said: “We are talking to them about the evacuation, about the ages of the kids and who has passports, birth certs, all of that. They know it's complex and long and it's going to take time.

“We've been in touch with a couple of solicitors, and they were just like, ‘The chances of this happening are next to nothing.’ But you can't just accept that as the final answer.”

Nyssan keeps in contact with her relatives through various WhatsApp groups, including one focused on trying to support their evacuation attempts.

Stories of living on limited soup and bread rations, relying on salt water for hydration and being fired upon while queuing for aid, have featured regularly in the updates.