Osama’s odyssey from Gaza, to Patissia, to Belgium

On the night of January 16, 12-year-old Osama from Palestine couldn't sleep. Early the next day he would travel from Athens to Belgium to meet his big brother. He was excited to see him again after four years, but also nervous - about the trip, the new beginning there and of course the war back in his homeland.

When he left Palestine alone six months ago, Israel's war in Gaza had not yet begun. Perhaps out of childish naivety, he felt that a wonderful adventure was about to begin. He had no second thoughts, nor had he felt fear. At the beginning of September, he had boarded a plane from Egypt to Turkey for the first time and from there he took a boat to the Greek islands. When, in the middle of the sea, someone shouted to him to throw his things overboard to lighten the boat, he did not object. He threw away his school bag, in which he had put a change of clothes. He only...