A TALENTED SCIENTIST from Gaza who was awarded a research role at Trinity College Dublin is asking the Irish government for help escaping the besieged strip of land.
Ezzeldeen Alswerky, 22, was given a contracted role in the university’s biochemistry and immunology department in the summer, but has been unable to take up the role due to the war.
Hailing from Gaza City in the north of the enclave, he spoke to The Journal about how his lifelong dream of working as a scientist was “destroyed” when the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) bombed his university in October last year.
The Islamic University of Gaza in Gaza City was targeted as part of a wider IDF bombing campaign in the territory following the 7 October attack by Palestinian paramilitary group Hamas which killed more than 1,200 people.
In a short space of time, Ezeldeen’s brother was killed, his home was severely damaged by IDF missiles and his family’s business was destroyed.
“Day by day, I experience trauma, fear, a lot of bad feelings – disappointment, a feeling of missing out,” he said.
Ezzeldeen lives with his parents and his three-year-old sister in the ruins of their home without access to meat and vegetables.
He said that groceries are borderline unaffordable in Gaza at present.
His plight was first highlighted in September by Trinity College’s student newspaper the University Times.
“Since childhood, I have been passionate about science,” Ezzeldeen told The Journal. Having been awarded a place on a prestigious and highly competitive internship in the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Switzerland in 2022, he got the opportunity to carry out advanced vaccine research.
He explained: “I stayed until 10pm almost every day for one year to do this project.”
He graduated from his degree in August 2023 before taking it upon himself to further his career by becoming a research assistant in a cancer research lab in Gaza.
But a year of round-the-clock project work went up in flames when his university was struck by an Israeli airstrike in the early days of fighting.
Daily aerial bombardments of Gaza by the IDF then began which have claimed the lives of over 45,000 people to date, according to UN figures.
“On 10 October, the IDF destroyed my university, my project and my dreams. So all my scientific research was stopped.”
One week later, Ezzeldeen’s brother was killed in an airstrike.
Despite the horrors he experienced, he sent speculative job applications to overseas universities in the hope of starting a new life.
“I decided to reach out to professors in Ireland since I know Ireland cares about Palestinians.”
He received a response in the summer from an associate professor of biochemistry at Trinity College who offered him a research assistant position in the university.
He signed the contract for the role within a month of the interview.
Evacuating Gaza
Trinity said it has made efforts to arrange his arrival at the college once he gets out of Gaza while it continues to “work with key stakeholders”, a spokesperson said.
Ezzeldeen contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs which, he said, is liaising with the Irish Embassy in Tel Aviv to place him on the safe evacuation list.
“I started reaching out to the [Irish] Embassy [in Tel Aviv] and they are so kind and offered help to me. So I sent them all the documents they needed.”
His visa application was successful, adding: “They told me they will add me to the evacuation list.”
However, Ezzeldeen faces the perilous journey of travelling to Cairo, Egypt to retrieve it, a journey which involves traversing two militarised borders.
He will first have to make his way southwards through an IDF barrier across the centre of Gaza which its spokesperson claims is part of a military operation to target “terrorist operatives and infrastructure” in northern Gaza, according to the BBC.
Ezzeldeen pleaded: “I need help from the Irish government or from Trinity College to cross into Egypt and to help me evacuate from Gaza safely.”
The financial cost of evacuation into Egypt has skyrocketed since the outbreak of violence last year, rising from between €225 and €630 up to €5,000- €6,750.
The Department of Foreign Affairs told The Journal in a statement that it is aware of Ezzeldeen’s case and has advised him, claiming his exit is “subject to the approval of Israeli authorities”.
TCD Associate Professor Amir Khan, who invited him to Trinity, said that he is “fearful” of Ezzeldeen’s “mental and physical health” as the critical situation in northern Gaza persists.
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