By the time that an Israeli rocket killed brothers Haytham, aged twenty-nine, and Bashar, twenty-one, in a tent outside their home in Al-Mawasi, southern Gaza — a designated “safe zone” at the time — last December, they had spent most of their adult lives in Europe. Between 2018 and 2023, the pair had passed through more than five European Union countries, before their journeys ultimately led them back to their starting point a few months before the outset of the genocide in 2023. They returned to a place that had already witnessed four wars in their lifetimes but that European administrators and policymakers deemed “safe” for return.

Asylum applications from Palestinians (no specific data exists for Gazans) in the EU have been steadily increasing this decade, peaking in 2023 at nearly 11,600. The vast majority of these applications have been made in Greece — which is also the primary point of arrival — and Belgium, with a fraction of applications to other European countries. While the EU has adopted a common pact on migration with the aim of ensuring consistency in outcomes, asylum decisions are ultimately at the discretion of member states. There is, however, a common goal when it comes to the EU border — namely, deterrence. While the experiences of brothers Haytham and Bashar are extreme, they are by no means exceptional. Rather their failed quest for security reflects the fate of countless Gazans to whom Europe has denied protection.