An Irish father has detailed the horrors of life in Gaza where he is sharing a house with 80 people after becoming stranded there while on holiday.

Engineer Ibrahim Alagha and his wife Hamida, 29, travelled to Gaza with their three children in July, to stay with relatives.

But they have not been able to return to their Dublin home since the Hamas terror attacks earlier this month – and the five of them are now living with more than 80 friends and relatives in Mr Alagha’s parents’ house and his father’s medical clinic.

On Sunday it emerged Hamas is blocking foreign nationals from leaving Gaza.

Photographs show the extent of the cramped conditions the family is living in and the chaos outside his parents’ home in Khan Younis.

The couple’s oldest child, Sami, is eight, daughter Eileen is four and their youngest son, Omar, is three.

All three children were born in Dublin where Mr Alagha, an Irish-Palestinian, has lived for 15 years.

Two weeks ago, he took his family on a perilous 20-minute car journey to the Rafah Crossing, after receiving a message from the Irish embassy in Israel the night before, informing him of a “planned exit for foreign citizens”.

Mr Alagha, 38, said: “It was a very scary journey, you could constantly hear drones overhead and bombs going off in the distance.”

He added: “My wife and I can lie to Eileen and Omar and tell them that the noises are just fireworks because they are still young enough to believe that.

“But we can’t say the same things to Sami. Instead, I try to reassure him by saying that we are not targets and the danger is far away, but he still gets very upset.”

However, upon their arrival, Mr Alagha said he received another message, this time from the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs.

It informed him that he should “urgently move away from the Rafah Crossing” and “await further information”.

But the family is yet to receive any more information about planned evacuations.

Mr Alagha’s father is a doctor and he is staying with 20 other men in his clinic.

Meanwhile, Mrs Alagha and their three children are living in the large four-bed house that belongs to her in-laws, with between 60 and 70 other women and children at any one time.

Mr Alagha said: “We have elderly people living there, a pregnant woman and two people who have diabetes. They have insulin for now but, just like water and food, supply is limited.”

He added: “Last week we lost 11 members of our extended family when a bomb took out their homes and many people staying here have lost their properties.”

Each morning he is joined by several other men living in the clinic and they head out on bikes to the local bakery where long queues mean it can take hours to buy bread.

“On a normal day, we are probably eating as little as a third of what we would usually eat,” Mr Alagha said.

“And sometimes all we can have for the day is just plain bread.”

But on Monday, he arrived at the shop to find there was no bread and had no option but to return back to the property with nothing.

In an emotional video, shared with The Telegraph, Mr Alagha said: “There is no queue [at the bakery], no bread, no gas even.

“[The] problem is everyone is waiting for me now and I will go back home with nothing.

“No plans today for what we will have for food, we’ve nearly run out of everything. I don’t know what to say.”

Water and fuel run low

With water and fuel running low, the family and the rest of the household wonder how long it can endure its current circumstances.

And last night a flat in Gaza city owned by Mr Alagha was destroyed by air strikes, wiping out precious savings and leaving him “devastated”.

Mr Alagha said the Irish authorities “used to call more frequently” but are getting in touch less.

“It feels like they are just getting bored with us now and that nothing is going to happen.”

He added: “Either this war will end or, God forbid, I will die before it does, but it just doesn’t feel like we are going to be helped.”

In a joint statement on behalf of the Irish embassy and the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, a spokesman said: “The Department of Foreign Affairs continues to work with Irish citizens in Gaza, and with the relevant authorities, to support them to depart from Gaza as soon as that becomes possible.

“We remain in daily contact with Irish citizens in Gaza.

“As with all consular cases, we do not comment on the details of individual cases.”