Said Alsaloul, teaching a class in September 2023. Photo taken by a student and provided by the writer

“The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you.”

I loved this famous saying by the American singer B.B. King and, before the genocide began, I would keep digging it into my students. But, for students in Gaza, these words now have no practical application. For two years our right to education has been decimated while the world watches.

To secure a prosperous future, our children’s minds must be nourished with knowledge, but after October 7, 2023, the occupation stripped us of the right to education and all other human rights as well. According to United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) data reported in July 2025, Israel had damaged or destroyed 97 per cent of schools in the Gaza Strip. “Direct hits” were aimed at 432 school buildings.

And since the war began, according to a June 2025 report by the Palestinian Ministry of Education, 15,553 pre-university students, 701 pre-university education staff, 1,111 university students, and 221 university education staff had been killed—with many thousands more injured.

In Gaza there is no longer any educational infrastructure.

The few skeletal buildings that remained of the Islamic University were turned into shelters for the displaced. Families whose houses were demolished, or stood within the evacuation order areas, darted to schools, as they were supposed to be the safest refuge, though this proved a false hope.

The number of the students who aren’t receiving education, especially those in the first grade, doubles every year as this war continues. And children who are deprived of school tend to be more undisciplined as they are exposed to war’s ruthless conditions.

Meanwhile, students who reached the end of secondary school were stuck for two years, unable to take the Tawjihi  (the General Secondary Education Certificate Examination). Recently, some were able to take their exams online, but there are no remaining options for any educational next steps as all the universities have been damaged or destroyed. Diligent students who long to attain their ambitions and to obtain a good job after university cannot see their future materialize.

When I was preparing for Tawjihi exams in 2017, I spent every night diligently studying to avoid making a single mistake that would betray me. All this pressure felt unfair. A few days after completing the exams, I received 85%, a very disappointing result. I had given everything to get the highest marks so that I could be proud of myself and be able to choose the university specialization I wanted and contribute constructively to my community.

I longed for solace, so I went to our land in the east––a place where I could resuscitate my weary soul, stitching my spirit back to my body. As the days passed, I began to relish my result, as it enabled me to enroll for a degree in English literature. I graduated in June 2022 and resolved to pursue my dream of building an English-language bookshop that included a language training center. I received a job offer as an English trainer in Al Salaam Training Center; this would keep me motivated and focused on my dream.

However, that didn’t last long; October 7 took place.

I managed to work during the war as a teacher, but education was not safe from Israeli guns and bombs. Classrooms, where peace, love, and human rights were being taught, were obliterated and children, mothers, and fathers who sought refuge in UNRWA’s schools were buried under the rubble.

Devastatingly, five of my first and second grade students, who had been coming to my home for English lessons, were killed beneath the stones of their houses. The memories of their innocent faces listening to me teaching are wounds that will not heal. After all the care children take for granted, how could they ever believe that the world could be so brutal?

This destruction “has made education impossible for over 658,000 children, many of whom have been out of school for nearly two years,” reported the United Nations Human Rights Council. In 2024, more than 57,000 new first graders joined the 658,000 children who are being denied education. Now in Fall 2025, the time when schools are supposed to reopen every year, thousands more are in the line to be denied.

Meanwhile, hundreds have been forced into child labor to support their families’ survival.  Online self-learning was once an option, but after two years of irreversible damage to internet infrastructure, along with electricity outages, and constant evacuation orders, even this is impossible.

On my way back home from school now, my memory flashes back to when I was a student, feeling that youthful joyful release at the end of school day, whereas, now, as a teacher, all I crave is a chance to get some sleep and rest.

Most of my students have been politicized in nature after being exposed to the bitter everyday realities lived by their parents and grandparents under the siege and occupation for so many years. They have acquired an aggressive, forceful approach when talking about Israel. I try to re-direct them back to the power of knowledge over force. They are the seeds of our future, and the future demands the power of knowledge as a backbone to build freedom. 

I still believe that education is the strongest way to prosperity and power, and that it is worth fighting for. Even though October 7 was a symptom of a chronic disease, knowledge and diplomacy are the most righteous weapons for rising above the occupiers, and gaining our liberation. 

B.B. King was right. Learning should be a right that no one can take away from you.