Shahid Abu Omar, 20, was in her third year studying computer science at Al Azhar University in Gaza when Israel’s military operation in the Palestinian territory reduced the university to rubble.
She is now one of 90,000 university students trapped in a war with no end in sight, which has damaged or destroyed all 12 higher education institutions in the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian official figures.
However, Abu Omar is determined to continue studying, making the dangerous journey daily to access a stable internet connection that allows her to learn online.
“We cannot go to our university, or study remotely,” he said, citing the difficulty of distance learning due to poor internet connection.
Abu Omar, sitting in the rubble of a destroyed house, studies using her mobile phone. Her mother, Haneen Sarour, said they came to the area to get an internet connection. She said the internet connection, needed to download pre-recorded lectures and communicate with professors, is still weak. “Every step is dangerous and difficult,” Sarour said.
He said that most of Abu Omar’s professors are also in the Gaza Strip and they are facing the same difficulties that their students are facing.
Abu Omar’s final exams are in just two weeks. She fears she will fall even further behind. “I’m sure we will lose even more than the year we’ve already lost,” she said.
She dreams of returning to university, sitting in class, meeting professors and friends.
The war, now in its 11th month, has also disrupted the education of Gaza’s estimated 625,000 schoolchildren, leaving them unable to attend classes.
Uncertainty is likely to continue for students in Abu Omar and the small coastal region, he said, adding that even after the war ends, students do not know when universities will reopen.
Despite all the difficulties, Abu Omar will continue studying in the hope that not a year of hers will be wasted. “We are trying to achieve something,” she said.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
