Trapped in Gaza, young people lament dashed dreams of studying abroad

As the top scorer in her high school exams in Palestine, Farah Taha set her sights on studying abroad. The ambitious 19-year-old, who lives in Gaza's Nuseirat Camp, had worked hard for it. Finally, she got accepted with a scholarship to Türkiye's Karabuk University to study international relations.

It's the field she felt she'd best serve her people from. But little did she know that her dreams were as fragile as the walls of her family's damaged apartment.

The timing of her scholarship could not have been less fortunate: two days after receiving news of the scholarship, Taha saw Israel launch a relentless war on her besieged home city of Gaza, where she's currently trapped. She's missed the school year, and is worried she's also missed the opportunity of a lifetime.

"We are being punished twice: first with bombing and death, and then with denial of education. This is the annihilation of our future, just as our lives and reality are being destroyed," Taha told TRT World.

Taha isn't alone. More than 1,500 students in Gaza who are at different stages of attaining various degrees from universities across the globe have been pleading for the international community to secure their exit from the embattled enclave so that they can pursue their education.

Scholasticide

She said she spends her days scrolling through media sites on her mobile phone, hoping to catch a glimpse of updates that could bring news of her being able to leave the embattled enclave, sealed shut from the world.

Alongside Israel's relentless bombardment of Gaza which has killed more than 43,000 people while thousands more are believed to be beneath the rubble, occupation forces have also waged what United Nations experts describe as scholasticide.

That's defined by the UN as a "pattern of attacks on schools, universities, teachers, and students in Gaza, raising serious alarm over the systemic destruction of the Palestinian education system."

According to a UN statement from April, more than 80 percent of schools in Gaza were damaged or destroyed. "It may be reasonable to ask if there is an intentional effort to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system, an action known as 'scholasticide,'" the statement added.

For Taha, these concerns are substantiated. She flips through her books and notebooks in her family's apartment, which bear the hallmarks of the devastation inflicted on thousands of buildings damaged by Israeli bombings.

While the top two floors of her building were completely blown up, along with significant harm done to six out of 10 towers in the Ain Jalut Towers area of the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, her apartment still stands, albeit in dire conditions. Yet the young woman cannot feel lucky: the wreckage surrounding her serves as a constant reminder of the harsh reality she cannot escape, and the opportunity she fears losing.

"I will lose my scholarship and my dreams will be shattered if I cannot travel. I have nothing to do with politics or war. I am a student, and I have the right to study. The world that claims to support human rights must also advocate for our right to learn and travel, and not remain silent," she said in frustration and despair.

Rafah's closure

Attempting to salvage her scholarship, Taha had registered with a homegrown group facilitating the departure of students enrolled in universities abroad. While the first batch of students left, the second group, which included Taha, was scheduled to go in June.

However, since May 6, along with occupying Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah, Israeli forces have sealed shut the Rafah border crossing — the only outlet for residents of Gaza to travel abroad via Egypt— effectively barring anyone from leaving the enclave. Very rare medical cases sometimes leave through other crossings.

As days blend into weeks and months without travel restrictions being lifted, Taha said she is growing more hopeless.

"Why is the occupation preventing us from travelling through any means or crossing? Education has been a priority for Palestinians for decades. The world must realise that education is life for us," she told TRT World.

Taha currently volunteers to teach high school students in makeshift schools that have been set up in recent months.

Despite Israel's occupation which strips the Palestinian population of many rights and slashes their sense of security and stability, Palestinians have one of the highest literacy rates in the world, standing at 97.7 percent in 2023, with Gaza's being 98.2 percent.

More than 1,500 Gazan students, including Taha, have come together to form the Gaza Students Travel Appeals Initiative, its coordinator Israa Karajah, told TRT World. The appeal brings together students registered for travel opportunities to attend universities outside Gaza, most notably in Egypt, Algeria and Türkiye either seeking bachelor's degrees or postgraduate studies.

Issuing a statement early November, the appeal called on the international community to pressure Israel into opening the crossings to students missing out on educational opportunities abroad. Some have also staged a protest in Khan Younis on November 5, to shed light on their plight.

Taha was amongst them. "I will fight until I get my right to travel and fulfil my dream. We will not die here, and we will not surrender," she said.

Losing dreams

Karajah has been just as unlucky. The master's student returned to Gaza in early 2023 from Türkiye to attend to family affairs with plans to pick up her international business administration studies.

However, the war has left her stranded in the enclave, and also forced her into displacement 16 times. She had since lost many of her projects, and needed to re-enroll in the university.

"Fifty students have lost their scholarships due to travel difficulties, and many others face similar challenges, as 80 percent of them hold scholarships,” she told TRT World.

She said that roughly 10 percent of those listed as part of the appeal have been injured, nearly a fifth live in destroyed homes, and some have even lost their lives.

She and her team are now implementing a program to verify applicants' documents and working with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education in Ramallah to help find a way out for stranded students, she said, adding that despite knocking on all doors, their plea has largely fallen on deaf ears.

For Karim Musa, the uncertainty is as stressful as the war itself. The 19-year-old student successfully secured a spot at the Faculty of Pharmacy at Cairo University in Egypt in August 2023, and had begun his studies when Israeli warplanes started bombing the residential building where his family lived in western Gaza City.

Unable to connect with his relatives for days, Musa finally got through to his eight-member family who were forced into displacement. "I was unable to go about my studies knowing my family faced imminent danger," he explained.

Suspending his studies for a year, he finally entered Gaza in November 2023 to reunite with his family. They have since lost their home and business, and have taken shelter in a refugee camp in Deir el-Balah, in Gaza's centre.

Days after Musa got back, his parents insisted he return to Egypt to continue his studies, as they wanted him to help support the family. However, Musa's attempts to travel back to Egypt failed. He now faces the risk of losing his place at the university, especially since he had been approved to postpone his studies for only one year.

This means losing total expenses of about $4,000, as well as a 50 percent discount on university fees offered to Palestinian students by the Egyptian government.

"This is all a significant loss, particularly as we lack even the most basic necessities following the destruction of my father's business. But my biggest loss is the devastation of my future, my life, and my dream of studying pharmacy, especially since universities here are nearly non-functional and the chance to enrol elsewhere is now impossible," he lamented.

This piece is published in collaboration with Egab.