ssh to self-hosted gitlab throws error ‘Connection refused’

gitlab is running on aws ec2 linux
version:

NAME="Amazon Linux"
VERSION="2023"

gitlab is running on a docker container

command to connect gitlab

ssh [email protected]

error message: ssh: connect to host [email protected] port 22: Connection refused

I can connect to the ec2 itself over ssh with a pem key ssh -i "~/a.pem" [email protected]. so I am sure ssh 22 port is opened.

I don’t know why it’s happening at all.

any help will be appreciated.

thank you !