Maha Ali once dreamed of becoming a journalist, telling the world’s stories from Gaza. Today, her only goal is survival – finding food in an enclave gripped by hunger.
As the war grinds on, the 26-year-old honors student lives among the crumbling remains of the Islamic University.
Once a vibrant hub of learning, it is now a crowded shelter for the displaced, like most educational institutions across Gaza.
“We used to say we wanted to live, to study, to travel,” Ali said. “Now we just say we want to eat.”
She is part of a generation of Gazans – from schoolchildren to university graduates – whose education has been shattered by nearly two years of Israeli airstrikes, leaving classrooms in rubble and futures on hold.
More than 60,000 people have been killed in Israel's response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, incursion into southern Israel, according to Gaza health authorities.
Much of the enclave, which suffered from poverty and high unemployment even before the war, has been demolished.
Palestinian Education Minister Amjad Barham accused Israel of carrying out a systematic destruction of schools and universities, saying 293 out of 307 schools were destroyed completely or partially.
“With this, the occupation wants to kill hope inside our sons and daughters,” he said.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military or Foreign Ministry.
Israel has accused Hamas and other groups of embedding themselves in civilian areas and structures, including schools, and using civilians as human shields.
Hamas rejects the allegations and, along with other Palestinians, accuses Israel of indiscriminate strikes.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that, according to the latest satellite-based damage assessment in July, 97% of educational facilities in Gaza have sustained some level of damage, with 91% requiring major rehabilitation or complete reconstruction to become functional again.
“Restrictions by Israeli authorities continue to limit the entry of educational supplies into Gaza, undermining the scale and quality of interventions,” the agency said.
Those grim statistics paint a bleak future for Yasmine al-Za'aneen, 19, who sat in a tent for the displaced, sorting through books that survived Israeli strikes and displacement.
She recalled how immersed she was in her studies, printing papers, finding an office and fitting it with lights.
“Because of the war, everything was stopped. I mean, everything I had built, everything I had done – just in seconds, it was gone,” she said.
There is no immediate hope for relief and a return to the classroom.
Mediators have failed to secure a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, which triggered the conflict by killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
Instead, Israel plans a new Gaza offensive, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he expected to complete “fairly quickly” as the U.N. Security Council heard new demands for an end to the suffering in the Palestinian enclave.
So Saja Adwan, 19, an honors student at Gaza's Azhar Institute who is living in a school-turned-shelter with her family of nine, recalled how the building where she once studied was bombed.
Under siege, her books and study materials are gone. To keep her mind occupied, she takes notes on the few educational papers she has left.
“All my memories were there – my ambitions, my goals. I was achieving a dream there. It was a life for me. When I used to go to the institute, I felt psychologically at ease,” she said.
“My studies were there, my life, my future, where I would graduate from.”
