Palestinian student Mohammed Al-Sharif from the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip fears his unknown future because he has been absent from his university and has lost his academic year for the second year in a row.
Al-Sharif was in his sixth year at the Faculty of Medicine at the Islamic University of Gaza before the war broke out between Hamas and the Israeli army in the Strip.
“I was counting the days and years until I graduated from medical school and began my professional career in a hospital in the Gaza Strip. Unfortunately, everything stopped because of the war, and I don’t know what my future holds,” said Al-Sharif, whose face appeared pale due to losing more than 20 kilograms.
He added, “The Israeli army bombed the university and destroyed most of its buildings, making it impossible for students to resume their studies for many years, while killing most of the university professors, and we lost our academic transcripts with them. We do not know what our fate will be and how we will be treated after the war ends. Will we continue our journey or will we start from scratch?”
In an attempt to apply his scientific expertise, Al-Sharif volunteered at a mobile medical center recently set up in Mawasi Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, to provide medical services to the displaced people crowded into that area, who are suffering from the spread of diseases and epidemics due to the accumulation of mountains of garbage and sewage “everywhere,” as he put it.
He added, “I offer my humble services to my people, but I do not know what my fate will be, and I do not know if I will ever become a doctor while this war continues and there is no prospect of it ending soon, nor even any hope for rebuilding universities and schools.”
The same concerns are shared by middle school student Kamal Abu Shar, who was forced to stay away from school for the second year in a row due to the ongoing large-scale war between Hamas and Israel.
Abu Shar (14 years old) says that he was supposed to be in the ninth grade (third middle school), which, after passing, would enable him to enroll in secondary school, which qualifies him to enroll in university education.
“I studied hard and actively, and I was keen to achieve the top grades in my school certificate in order to achieve my dream of becoming an architect, but now I am just a homeless child with no home, no school, no life, and no security,” he added.
Instead of attending his lessons, Abu Shar is forced to stand in daily queues to provide water and food for his family of 9.
“All the children in the world are currently enjoying their new school year, but we cannot even guarantee our lives for a single minute because of this war that has never spared anyone,” he says.
Abu Shar and Al-Sharif are among 710,000 Palestinian students in the Gaza Strip who were studying in Palestinian schools and universities before the war broke out, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Education in Ramallah.
Systematic targeting of the education sector
Before the war, there were 796 schools in the Gaza Strip, including 442 government schools, 284 schools affiliated with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), and 70 private schools, while the number of higher education institutions in Gaza is 17, in addition to an open education university, according to the ministry.
According to the latest statistics issued by the Ministry of Health in Gaza, more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 95,000 others have been injured – the majority of them women and children – since October 7, 2023.
The victims included about 9,000 students, 500 teachers, and 110 university lecturers, according to the Ministry of Education.
During its ongoing war on the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army did not leave a single school or university without targeting it with shells, blowing up its buildings with explosives, or bombing it from the air with warplanes, according to the ministry’s spokesman, Sadiq al-Khudur.
Al-Khudour added, “It is clear from the massive destruction of Palestinian universities and schools in the Gaza Strip that the Israeli army has a systematic policy of targeting educational centers in the Strip, with the aim of creating ignorance and ending the existence of any place for study even after the end of the war.”
He continued, “Unfortunately, the Israeli army also worked to transform many universities in the Gaza Strip into military barracks and places for investigation, and then destroyed them after leaving them. Most of the schools are now housing the displaced, while 70% of them were bombed and some were completely destroyed.”
He added, “Even if the Israeli war stops, the Gaza Strip will need years to restore educational life due to the destruction that has affected most schools and universities, as well as the killings that we almost confirm are systematic against teachers and university professors.”
It is noteworthy that the school year began in the cities and villages of the West Bank and Jerusalem on September 9, while students in Gaza were prevented from attending their schools.
But the ministry announced the launch of virtual schools for Gaza students, as educational content for all subjects is published via electronic platforms.
But parents complain about the lack of the necessary internet and smartphones for their children to resume their education, even if it is online.
