
Everyone has the right to education…. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedom. — Universal Declaration of Human Rights
In 2006, Israel closed Gaza in, making it what some people call an open-air prison. For the people there, including my family and me, getting in or going out has been tightly controlled. Coming or going by sea is also blocked. All of us Palestinians are considered a security problem by Israel. So, there are high walls and guarded gates and constant tension.
We confined Palestinians have responded to the situation by making the best of it. And one way we’ve done that is by developing our traditional and cultural emphasis on learning. In Gaza, we have created hundreds of schools. We’ve built elementary schools, secondary schools, and several excellent universities; kindergartens for the youngest, specialty schools for those with special abilities and callings. Arts and engineering, science, music and dance are all subjects of study, pursuits of learning. We have orchestras and theater programs. We are teachers and professors imparting our knowledge, and students pursuing and fulfilling our dreams.
The people of Palestine are lovers of knowledge and learning. Gaza and the West Bank, considered leading centers of learning in the Arab world, boasts a literacy rate of 98%, according to U.S. AID.
At least it did until Saturday, October 7, 2023. From that day until now, more than 15 months and counting, the education system of Gaza has been virtually eradicated by Israel’s targeted and unrelenting bombing. Schools, declared by Israel to be safe zones and flooded into by terrified and horrified Palestinian men, women, and children, have been the sites Israel has unfailingly bombed, always with the pretext that there are Hamas fighters there, but never giving evidence to prove it.
As of January 14, 2024, an estimated 12,241 students and 503 educational staff have been killed, with more than 22,000 more students and staff injured, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Nearly 90% of all school buildings in Gaza will need to be partially or fully rebuilt, which means it could take years before they are usable again. Schools — places of learning, the joy of childhood, friendship, play, meaningful moments — have been turned into places of death, injury, and total loss.

Survival trumps education
Life has become a daily search for food, both for children and their families. Instead of putting on a clean dress or a fresh shirt to get ready for school in the morning, 7-year-olds are standing in lines with empty pans in hopes of getting something to eat. Twelve-year-old boys are searching for water for their families crowded into miserable spaces of suffering, sickness and starvation. Israel and its settler population have systematically prevented us from having food, water, gas for cooking, and all medications — though they deny this.
The future of education in Gaza remains uncertain. Who can think about vocabulary and spelling, addition and equations when missiles are flying overhead and there are horrific scenes of massacres all around?
My family has been displaced twice since the beginning of the aggression, and my siblings have been without school for more than a year. My brother, who is not yet 10 years old, has forgotten how to read and how to hold a pen. High school students, at a stage considered crucial for opening the doors of life, do not know what will happen. Will they take exams and move on to university?
I speak from bitter experience, having traveled long distances to take my exams in my final year of university. I had the ambition to study for a master’s degree and excel in my field of specialization, but that dream has evaporated. I do not have electricity to charge my phone, nor do I have the motivation to regain even a part of my passion for studying. Today, I can hardly open a folder of my lecture notes because I have despaired. I no longer want anything but survival.
What is the future?
Some 658,000 students in Gaza have been deprived of their natural right. How can they study when they lack the basic necessities of life? They have been left to their fate at the hands — and weapons — of the Israeli military, and it seems like no one anywhere else in the world is paying attention to our suffering. Today, you see a child with defeat and old age in his eyes, running barefoot in the street. It breaks my heart.
In a few places, new tents have been set up to serve as schools, hoping to get back to some sort of normalcy, but when nothing is normal, they make scarcely a dent in the overwhelming situation. But with so many of the school buildings in Gaza now damaged or destroyed by Israel’s bombs, it will take time to repair or rebuild them, and the delay for children to return to their classrooms will have a devastating effect.
When will Palestinians have the right to live in safety? When will children wake up to the sounds of birds instead of rockets? When will we live for our dreams and aspirations, not just for survival? Life stands still in Gaza while it races ahead in the world. When will we catch up with the world? When will we live?
It is my fervent hope that this will come to an end soon. Somewhere there is a power with authority to make Israel stop, and someone will come to save us. Restore us. Help us bring back the glory of our culture, our values, our heritage. Let me get back to studying and learning, and benefitting my people.
Insha’allah.
Editor’s note: On January 6, 2025, the American Historical Association adopted a Resolution to Oppose Scholasticide in Gaza which reads, in part:
- be it resolved that the AHA, which supports the right of all peoples to freely teach and learn about their past, condemns the Israeli violence in Gaza that undermines that right;
- Be it further resolved that the AHA calls for a permanent ceasefire to halt the scholasticide documented above;
- Finally, be it resolved that the AHA form a committee to assist in rebuilding Gaza’s educational infrastructure.
However, on January 17, the AHA Council vetoed the resolution.