I began my bachelor’s diploma in architectural engineering on the Islamic College of Gaza (IUG) in 2021. I used to be very pleased with myself for making it into the sector of examine that I had all the time needed to pursue.
My life appeared all set for the subsequent 5 years. I used to be going to review onerous, attempt to move my exams with good grades, intern at a widely known engineering workplace, after which apply for a grasp’s diploma.
Every little thing was going based on plan till October 7 final 12 months. That day I used to be purported to submit a college challenge I had misplaced a variety of sleep on. The bombing began within the morning however I didn’t concentrate and I stored engaged on the challenge. I used to be used to Israeli assaults on Gaza. I had lived by means of half a dozen of them.
Then I acquired information that college lessons had been suspended. Once more, I believed issues could be again to regular quickly, so I completed the challenge and submitted it.
The subsequent day, on October 8, I used to be supposed to debate a bunch project with three different classmates. It was slated to be our final dialogue to wrap up the challenge earlier than submitting it on October 10. As a substitute of speaking to my classmates, I acquired the information that one in every of them, my expensive buddy Alaa, had been killed by an Israeli air strike. As a substitute of ending the college project, I mourned my buddy.
On October 14, I bid farewell to my dwelling in Gaza Metropolis as my dad and mom, siblings and I fled to Khan Younis, considering we might be protected there. I left behind my laptop computer, initiatives, books, and the whole lot associated to my research.
In Khan Younis, I dreamed of going again to college. Finally, I did, however to not examine. In early December, a mosque proper reverse the condo constructing the place we had been staying was bombed by the Israeli military. We bought scared and sought shelter within the close by Al-Aqsa College, taking nearly nothing with us. That night time, the constructing the place we had stayed was attacked and destroyed. We needed to search by means of the rubble and extract no matter of our possessions we may discover.
We stayed one other month and a half in Khan Younis. I used to be afraid of connecting to the web, not to mention checking on classmates and associates. Simply checking my WhatsApp was a terrifying nightmare. I used to be terrified of studying concerning the deaths of individuals I knew. In December, I acquired information that one other classmate, Fatima, was killed by the Israeli military alongside together with her father and siblings.
In January, the Israeli military intensified bombardment, massacring lots of in Khan Younis, after which raided Al-Khair Hospital close to us. We fled to Rafah and settled in a small tent pitched on the street. Life was really depressing.
However hope typically comes as a shock customer, once you least count on it. In March, phrase unfold of a plan to permit Gaza college students to enrol in West Financial institution universities and attend lessons remotely. It was such a aid. I felt I used to be now not losing my life. I signed up for the programme and waited to listen to from one of many universities.
When Birzeit College (BZU) contacted me, I felt like fortune lastly smiled on me. I registered for the utmost variety of programs I used to be allowed and fortunately waited to begin finding out once more. However my pleasure was short-lived. Simply 5 days after the semester began on Might 7, my household and I once more needed to flee the advancing Israeli military. Rafah was underneath assault, so we needed to evacuate again to Khan Younis.
The Israeli military’s assault on Khan Younis had left it wanting like a ghost city. There was nothing left there. Buildings and infrastructure had been fully destroyed. It was not appropriate for all times, however we had no alternative. Greater than 1,000,000 individuals evacuated with us from Rafah and displacement camps and different areas like Deir el-Balah had been full to the brink.
This displacement meant that I couldn’t full my research at BZU. Whereas life in a tent within the streets of Rafah was onerous, the web there labored for essentially the most half. In Khan Younis, there was no web in anyway. The closest level from which I may join was in al-Mawasi, seven kilometres (4 miles) away.
I needed to stroll that distance with a heavy coronary heart to ship an e mail to BZU letting them know that I used to be ending my enrolment.
In June, I acquired information that my authentic college, IUG, had provide you with a plan to permit college students to finish their research remotely by means of a mix of self-study and instruction.
It divided the semester we began final October in two, giving us a month to review materials that will usually take months earlier than taking exams for the primary half; then we needed to do the identical for the second half.
Discovering instructors for every course was a problem. Many professors had been killed and plenty of others had been additionally displaced and in precarious conditions, struggling to offer meals and water for his or her households. Consequently, we had one teacher assigned to the complete course of virtually 800 college students.
I registered for 2 programs, and on daily basis began strolling the seven kilometres to al-Mawasi underneath the scorching solar, passing heaps of rubble, rubbish and puddles of sewage water, to obtain lectures and keep in contact with my college.
I used to be happy with that. Something was higher than sitting in a sizzling tent and losing away in despair.
However sustaining this distant examine was extraordinarily troublesome. Shortly after I began finding out, the Israeli military carried out a large assault on al-Mawasi, dropping eight monumental bombs on the camp, killing at the very least 90 individuals and injuring 300 others.
There was chaos and concern all over the place. I actually was scared to go wherever close to what was purported to be a “protected zone”.
I didn’t return on-line for every week. The Israeli military had broken the communications infrastructure. After I lastly managed to get related, the sign was very weak. It took me two days to obtain one guide.
I managed to get again into finding out solely to be disrupted once more. New evacuation orders issued by the Israeli navy compelled hundreds of individuals into the empty space the place we had settled. It grew to become so overcrowded and noisy that I had hassle concentrating for hours.
Charging my cellphone to review was additionally one other supply of struggling. Each two days, I needed to ship it within the morning to a charging service and wait until the afternoon to get it again, losing a complete day.
Exams week lastly got here in August. I needed to scramble to discover a good web connection, and after I did, I needed to pay an enormous sum of cash to make use of it for an hour. I did what I may on the exams.
Three weeks later, I acquired the outcomes: A+ on each exams. I couldn’t cease smiling that day.
Then I began finding out for the second a part of the semester and the opposite three exams, which I took in September.
I completed this improvised semester nearly a 12 months after the beginning of the struggle – a 12 months of displacement, loss, tent life, nightmares and constant explosions. As I struggled to review, I realised simply how a lot I missed the small “luxuries” of my earlier life: my desk, my mattress, my room, my tea and chocolate bars.
These two months of finding out for the exams had been a small distraction from the overwhelming emotions of loss and despair amid this ongoing genocide. It felt like an injection of an anaesthetic to assist me neglect for just a bit bit the ache of my depressing life.
The views expressed on this article are the creator’s personal and don’t essentially replicate Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
