Traumatised Gazan families make heartfelt plea to the people of Kilkenny

There is still hope that six Palestinian families, who came to Ireland under a medical evacuation programme for children injured in Gaza, could find a home in Kilkenny — despite an initial potential housing option falling through.

Twelve families are currently in Ireland under the medical evacuation scheme. They are under the care of the Irish Red Cross (IRC) and Children’s Health Ireland, with the Department of Health leading the programme.

Eight arrived in December 2024 and four more in May 2025. Eleven are based in South Dublin and one in Wicklow. Six of the families have been told they will need to move because the lease on their current residence will expire next month.

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According to an Irish Congress of Trade Unions ICTU representative, “These six families were happy to come to Kilkenny where there are the resources between schools, hospitals and many integration partners.

“The train journey of less than two hours would allow them to maintain medical continuity for treatment. One young Palestinian girl aged 10 is receiving treatment for bomb shrapnel.”

Instead of Kilkenny or another county close to Dublin, the Irish Red Cross has indicated that six of the families are planned to be relocated to Letterkenny, County Donegal.

According to various sources, they were given eight days’ notice of a move scheduled for August 5. The deadline was postponed to August 12 and then postponed again after legal and medical concerns were raised.

Latest indications were that the move would take place yesterday (Tuesday), however that had not yet occurred as various issues still need to be ironed out.

When approached for comment to clarify the latest developments on this relocation plan, a spokesperson for the Irish Red Cross stated that specific details cannot be provided due to confidentiality and privacy concerns.

The mothers have since provided a statement to the Kilkenny People: “We are happy here in Ireland and in Dublin and are very grateful to the Irish people. We have settled in and have made local support and a sense of family. Letterkenny is unfamiliar.

“It feels far away from our safety nets at a time when we are very, very worried about our husbands and children who are still in Gaza. This worry that we have in every minute of the day and night makes it difficult to think about moving to an unfamiliar place without our existing supports.”

The Gazan mothers here have said they would be happy to move to Donegal if their husbands and other children were here.

They feel that this would help them heal from their trauma and they would feel safer and more secure. They would also no longer have the terror over them that their loved ones could be killed at any moment.

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The mothers have also said that the Irish Red Cross had looked for homes for them in and around Dublin, and although some options were explored, unfortunately nothing that met the required criteria could be found.

The mothers were happy that the Red Cross had been searching for homes in and around Dublin for them, but the news of the relocation to Letterkenny came as a shock to them.

They said that they would prefer to wait until their husbands and children could join them from Gaza before moving, or if they must move before then, they would hope another option closer to Dublin could be found.

The Kilkenny People understands that, from accounts given by a volunteer close to the families, the distress is severe.

The volunteer stated: “The approach taken with these families does not appear to have been trauma-informed, from what I have witnessed and heard from the families.

“They are already so anxious and in fear, worried each day if other members of their family and their friends will be killed. Some of these children have horrific injuries, were pulled from the rubble and have also lost family members. They are distressed beyond words.

“I don’t know if other people truly understand how traumatic any further displacement is for them, based on their experience in Gaza.

“They are too frightened to go because they have just started to settle in Dublin, to understand how things work here, navigate their local community and have built up a support network and their kids have made friends and have started school.

“They are not in a fit state to move at the moment. While they know that Letterkenny is a lovely place and have been reassured, they would be welcomed with open arms, they perceive it as very far and isolated from their current support network, with whom they have built trust with over the past months.

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“They are still very traumatised, vulnerable and suffer daily — worrying that their loved ones back in Gaza might be killed at any moment or will die of starvation.

“They are also worried about a nine hour round trip on public transport to come to Dublin for medical appointments. They wish they could stay as close to Dublin as possible.”

The families have made clear that they have nothing personal against Letterkenny (or Donegal) and that they are very grateful for all the Irish Government, the Irish Red Cross and the Irish people have done for them so far.

However, they fear the scale of the move may not only be disruptive but also comes at a time of deep trauma and ongoing medical need.

The volunteer explained that at least three of the children survived bomb attacks on their homes and were pulled out from rubble, sustaining severe physical and psychological trauma.

“They are genocide survivors,” the volunteer stated. “At least three of the children here survived bomb attacks on their homes in Gaza and were pulled out from under the rubble, sustaining severe physical and psychological trauma.

“They were forced to leave their homes, most of their homes have been destroyed, they had to flee several times from place to place.

“One woman and her son survived a bomb attack on their tent, which killed her husband and blew the leg off her six-year-old son.

“She had to leave behind her three other children in Gaza (aged eight, 12 and 14) with her 80 year old mother. One Gazan girl here is only 19 looking after her 16-year-old-brother.

“What they have been through is unfathomable. The terror they have experienced and continue to experience is beyond anything the vast majority of us here on this island has experienced or could even imagine.

“They are traumatised. They were faced with an impossible choice. They had to leave their husbands behind and some of them had to leave their other children behind.

“They are terrified they will receive a phone call any moment that one of their husbands or children have been killed or have died from starvation or lack of medical care. A grandfather to one of the children was also injured in a bomb attack while already a hospital inpatient after two heart attacks.”

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While the original housing push in Kilkenny has fallen through, the families have expressed Kilkenny (and nearby counties within two hours of Dublin) as a preferred option to Donegal.

Advocates for the families have stressed that any county within two hours of Dublin would be preferable, as this would allow the families to maintain continuity of care for their children while being close enough to vital supports.

There is currently a campaign within the Irish Palestinian Solidarity movement to try delay the relocation of the families.

At the time of going to print, the relocation to Letterkenny is due imminently, but as aforementioned, a brief reprieve is hoped for as various documentation and integration issues are being ironed out.

Finding alternative accommodation within reach of Dublin (with Kilkenny still seen as an ideal option) may be the only way to ensure these families, already scarred by unimaginable loss, can rebuild their lives according to their own needs - but time is of the essence.

Kilkenny City councillor Seán Ó hArgáin, who has been vocal about the plight of Palestinian people and who has also been an active presence at demonstrations, stated that he ‘would be very interested in seeing what we can do in Kilkenny [for these families]’.

Cllr Ó hÁrgáin stated that he approached council officials on the matter but that there are no available options at present within their remit to provide.

He has called on the HSE to look into the matter of accommodation, in the hope that these traumatised families can have some respite.

The families affected have informed the Kilkenny People that they are urgently appealing for more local accommodation options within two hours of Dublin.

Options and parties in a position to help are urged to come forward immediately.

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