The Electronic Intifada 19 February 2025
Students in Gaza demanding the opening of crossings to Gaza in October 2024, in order for them to be able to pursue their studies abroad.
The Electronic IntifadaSalma al-Hindi, 21, is facing an uncertain future.
A mathematics undergraduate, Salma saw her university, Al-Azhar, destroyed in November 2023, when the Israeli military bombed the campus.
Since then, and displaced with her family from their home in the al-Nasr neighborhood of Gaza City to a tent inside the grounds of Al-Nasr Pediatric Hospital, al-Hindi has struggled.
“How am I supposed to study,” she asked in January when talking to The Electronic Intifada. “For the past 15 months, my family and I have been living in a tent without electricity, internet or a computer.”
To make matters worse, al-Hindi said her course textbooks were lost forever when her family’s house was bombed in October 2023.
She is far from alone. Israeli airstrikes and shelling, along with controlled demolitions, have completely or partially destroyed every single one of Gaza’s 12 higher education institutes.
According to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, 88,000 university students have been unable to pursue their studies, and at least 555 students from Gaza have had to forego on the opportunity to use scholarships they had been offered abroad.
“I don’t know what to do,” al-Hindi told The Electronic Intifada. “I am worried about my future, which is slipping away before my eyes. The Israeli war on Gaza has destroyed the future of thousands of university students. The occupation has destroyed everything in Gaza.”
Not giving up
The situation hasn’t changed after the declaration of a ceasefire and the supposed suspension of Israeli attacks. She said she is still busy helping provide for her family’s daily needs, such as finding water and collecting firewood to cook food and to heat their tent.
Despite the difficulties, al-Hindi said she was not giving up and will find a way to complete her studies. She hoped foreign governments, aid agencies and universities would step in to “support education in Gaza by any means possible.”
As far back as April, a panel of United Nation experts suggested Israel’s “systemic destruction” of education institutions could be considered an intentional effort to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system in Gaza.
Tayseer al-Saif, 23, was on the verge of graduating with a degree in information technology from University of Palestine, destroyed in January last year, when she and four other family members were displaced to the Deir al-Balah camp in the al-Zeitoun neighborhood in eastern Gaza City on 8 November 2023.
“I joined the e-learning system at the university, but I couldn’t continue due to the lack of internet, the power outages and the general insecurity,” al-Saif said in January about quitting the program after a month.
She recalled walking some three miles every day to reach a café with a strong enough internet connection for her to download the materials and study summaries provided online by her professors. But these efforts also proved unsustainable as it cost her $3 an hour to use the internet.
“We were supposed to be taking our final exams for the first semester these days,” al-Saif said. “Everything has been postponed. But until when? No one knows.”
She said she hoped the ceasefire could provide her and other students with opportunities to resume their education, even despite the wholesale destruction of universities.
It will be a gradual process. The first realistic option would be to continue studying via online educational programs while educational institutions are rebuilt to allow students to gradually return. Temporary or alternative educational centers could also be constructed in Gaza.
Luckier than others
Al-Saif said she still considers herself lucky. Many of her fellow students were killed over the 15 months, and even after the ceasefire came into, Israeli attacks have continued, and are a source of anxiety for everyone in Gaza.
“How can a student study when they know they are at risk of being killed at any moment – with the constant threat of a missile possibly hitting their home or tent, or the homes and tents of their neighbors,” she asked.
Nasser Ghuneim, 29, was enrolled in a master’s math program at the Islamic University of Gaza, which the Israeli military deliberately targeted in October 2023, destroying most of its buildings.
“I was supposed to graduate in the spring [of 2024],” he said. “But then my future was turned upside down, and my dreams changed from being an educated person to working in a café to provide for my family’s basic needs.”
He described 2024 as a lost year.
“I lost my textbooks. I lost friends. I lost professors. And I don’t know what will happen to us this year. Everything has evaporated.”
Ceasefire or not, the destruction in Gaza has been devastating. Reconstruction will be a massive task and Ghuneim feared it would be years before education could be properly restarted.
“The university can no longer be used for studying,” he told The Electronic Intifada. “Everything is destroyed – classrooms, laboratories, all its facilities. Returning while things are in this condition is extremely difficult and Gaza may need years to restore its education sector.”
Call for accountability
Salah Abdel-Atti, chairman of the International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights group, accused Israel of trying to obliterate education in Gaza by specifically targeting higher education institutes.
“Targeting universities, schools, and academies is a violation of international humanitarian law and infringes on the right to education,” Abdel-Atti said, citing Article 26 and Article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Moreover, he added, the deliberate targeting of universities is unlawful as per Article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which “classifies deliberate attacks on civilian objects as war crimes and violations of the Hague and Geneva Conventions.”
With such clear breaches of international law, Abdel-Atti said Israel must be held accountable, and the individuals who “issued, executed or participated” in such attacks should be prosecuted before the ICC.
Israel’s genocidal aggression has resulted in the killing of some 150 academics, 760 teachers, more than 12,000 students, and the complete or partial destruction of 494 schools and higher education institutes.
“By targeting universities in the Gaza Strip, the occupation deliberately contributed to the destruction of the academic environment, which has long been a significant source of motivation and innovation,” Alaa Bani Fadel, a professor of criminal law and human rights at An-Najah National University, said on 8 January.
The complete halt in the educational process has deprived “students of their right to education in both the present and future, as well as denying faculty members their right to work,” he said.
In such a situation, distance learning becomes the only method for continuing course work, he said. But, like many other educators, Bani Fadel reported experiencing firsthand the problems caused by inconsistent “internet access, weak telecommunications and frequent power outages.”
“Gaza’s universities will need a significant amount of time to restore their activities following the massive destruction they have endured,” Bani Fadel said. He said it was essential to encourage students to immediately enroll in Arab and international universities to complete their education.
“Academics must raise their voices and share their struggles with the world by communicating with human rights and academic organizations to highlight the devastating reality of the education sector in Gaza.”
Taghreed Ali is a journalist in Gaza.
