Gaza- Student Dina Adwan no longer has any hope of completing her studies and obtaining a university degree this year, in light of the ongoing Israeli war on the Gaza Strip for the fourth month in a row, which has killed, injured, and destroyed educational personnel and infrastructure.
For many weeks, Dina (21 years old) had to worry about her future, but today she describes herself as “more realistic,” and told Tel Aviv Tribune Net, “In this crazy war, I only hope for survival for myself, my family, and my loved ones.”
The young woman was about to graduate and obtain her university degree in “Applied Information Technology” from Al-Aqsa University in Gaza City, one of the universities in the Strip that was destroyed by the Israeli bombing.
Pending dreams
During the first weeks of the aggression, Dina continued to follow her lessons on her own, but her hope faded that her studies would soon resume and she surrendered to the idea of “wasting a year of her life.” She said, “These days we were supposed to take the final exams for the first semester.”
When the war broke out on October 7, universities had just opened their doors. Dina says, “The war took a year of my life, and destroyed my future plans to continue my higher education, but I am one of the lucky ones to be alive. Many of my colleagues and friends at the university were martyred, and the dean of our college, Khaled Sharaf, was martyred along with all his family members.”
Dina excelled among her colleagues, and was preparing herself to obtain an excellence scholarship and teach for a year as a teaching assistant at the university, and then apply for a Turkish government scholarship, like her older sister, Ahed.
She says, “All of this has been postponed, but for how long? No one knows. This war seems to have no horizon and no time limit. Our educational future has become blurry, and we are no longer thinking about anything but survival.”
Dark picture
In turn, the director of the Education Directorate in the city of Rafah, Ahmed Lafi, speaks about the future of the educational process, and confirms, “The picture is bleak, and no one can predict the future reality of this process until after the war has completely ended.”
He added, “It is impossible to imagine what education will be like, and all the schools are occupied by displaced people, or have been completely or partially destroyed as a result of Israeli targeting.” He believes that the greatest danger afflicts high school students who have only been in school for one month, and “these people’s future is unknown.” “They are taking unified exams at the level of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and Jerusalem.”
Lafi believes that it is not possible to imagine the scenarios available later to save the educational process, including e-learning, and he considers it a very complicated matter in light of the massive destruction of residential homes and facilities, the lack of electricity, and the deterioration of communications and Internet services.
Systematic targeting
According to the Ministry of Education, 4,327 male and female students were martyred, 7,819 others were injured, 231 teachers and administrators were martyred, and 756 of them sustained various injuries, as of last Saturday morning. Also, 281 government schools and 65 schools belonging to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) were completely and partially destroyed.
According to the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, the Israeli targeting affected 90% of government school buildings, which were subjected to direct and indirect damage, while 133 government schools are used as shelter centers.
UNRWA says that 151 of its employees have been martyred since the outbreak of the war, and 1.9 million displaced people reside either inside or near 154 UNRWA shelter centers, the majority of which are schools.
Education in Gaza, with its personnel, facilities, and facilities, was in the “focus” of Israeli targeting, and human rights organizations classify it as systematic targeting.
The Observatory documented the martyrdom of 94 university professors, hundreds of teachers and thousands of students as part of the “comprehensive crime of genocide” committed by the occupation in Gaza. Among the list of academic martyrs, 17 individuals hold professor degrees, 59 doctorate degrees, and 18 master’s degrees.
According to the head of the Observatory, Rami Abdo, this toll is not final, as estimates indicate that there are other numbers of targeted academics, and those with higher degrees who have not been counted as a result of documentation difficulties resulting from the inability to move freely, the interruption of communications and the Internet, and the presence of thousands of missing persons.
Abdo told Tel Aviv Tribune Net that the targeted academics are distributed across various knowledge sciences, and the majority of them represent the foundations of academic work in Gaza’s universities.
The human rights activist estimates that it may take years for universities to resume studies in a completely destroyed environment. Observatory documentation confirms that the occupation army committed crimes of systematic and widespread destruction that directly affected all universities and across stages.
Intentional destruction
The first stage was bombing operations that targeted buildings at the “Islamic” and “Al-Azhar” universities, and then extended to the rest of the universities, leading to some of them being blown up and completely blown up after they were converted into military barracks, as happened at “Al-Isra” University south of Gaza City, which the Israeli media reported on. On January 17, a video clip documented the process of blowing it up, 70 days after it was converted into a military barracks and a temporary detention center.
Rami Abdo stressed that Israel’s widespread and deliberate destruction of cultural and historical objects, such as universities, schools, libraries, and archives, comes within the framework of its public policy of making Gaza “an unlivable place, and creating a coercive environment that lacks the minimum necessities of life and services, which may eventually push its residents away.” To immigration.
For his part, Salah Abdel Ati, head of the International Commission for Supporting the Rights of the Palestinian People, told Tel Aviv Tribune Net that the Israeli war deprived about 608,000 male and female students of their right to school education, and stopped the march of 90,000 university students.
The Authority’s statistics indicate that more than 4,000 male and female students were martyred, including 438 university students, and thousands of others were injured. According to the International Monetary Fund, the losses of the education sector – due to demolition and destruction – exceed $720 million, as 70% of schools and universities were damaged.
Abdel Ati added that the occupation’s targeting of education affected approximately 395 educational buildings, including all university buildings and headquarters that were subjected to complete and partial destruction, in addition to the destruction of cultural facilities, libraries, and printing presses.
He agrees with the head of the Euro-Mediterranean Observatory that the Israeli goal behind this is “to ignore and make Gaza an uninhabitable area and push its residents towards emigration, by destroying the infrastructure, education, health, and all necessities of life.”