Amid the rubble of the Islamic University of Gaza City, Ahmed Totah approached his first classroom with a mixture of fear and hope. The campus was badly damaged, but the 19-year-old was finally beginning the university education he had dreamed of.
“I never imagined this moment would come so quickly,” he said, clutching his backpack. “Especially after two years of war and the near collapse of life in Gaza.”
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Totah graduated from high school in July with a 93% average. He called it unexpected. Years of airstrikes and disruptions had forced him to study by the light of a phone or a candle.
“I studied while feeling like everything around me was crumbling,” he said. “Every night I told myself: We can lose everything, but we mustn’t lose our education.”
Even with his grades, going to university had felt almost impossible. Classes had been canceled, and most of the campus buildings were in ruins. She finally enrolled in the information technology program she had always dreamed of. But her first steps on campus were overwhelming.
Universities in Gaza are reopening.
With heavily damaged campuses and scarce resources, students are coping, and holding on to hope https://t.co/G5g5uqO1Yt #MideastStories pic.twitter.com/patQaVBKwd— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) December 11, 2025
Destruction was everywhere, and piles of rubble made the university barely recognizable compared to what it had been.
Still, she said, simply being there gives her a sense of hope she didn’t have just a few months ago. “It may not be what it used to be,” she said, “but it’s still the only place where I can believe in the future. Just sitting in a classroom gives me the energy to keep going.”
Hiba Abu Nada, 21, returned to her history studies after a two-year hiatus. She had enrolled in 2023, but spent the conflict studying online, worried that she might finish her degree without ever having set foot in a classroom.
For her, walking into a classroom for the first time was a poignant moment. It proved that education could continue despite the war.
“Looking around at the empty seats and damaged walls, I realized that coming back wasn’t just about studying,” she said. “It was proof that the future isn’t over and that we can rebuild our lives.”
Totah and Abu Nada are among the thousands of students returning to in-person classes in Gaza. The badly damaged Islamic University has reopened its doors after two years.
Palestinian students sit in the campus of Islamic University, in Gaza City. Photo: Xinhua
Before the war, Gaza had seven universities and eleven colleges. The conflict has caused heavy losses: at least 1,111 university students and 193 academics and professors have died, including Sufian Tayeh, rector of the Islamic University.
Despite this, the university has reopened to first-year students in programs requiring hands-on learning: medicine, engineering, sciences, nursing, information technology, and law.
Bassam al-Saqqa, the university’s vice president, stated that the reopening is part of a phased plan to restore academic life, focusing on courses that cannot be taught online.
A teacher gives a lesson at Islamic University, in Gaza City. Photo: Xinhua
The challenges are enormous. Buildings, laboratories, electricity, and internet infrastructure are severely damaged. Shortages of materials are slowing reconstruction and delaying a full reopening.
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