After two years of war that devastated the Gaza Strip, universities are slowly reopening and offering students a fragile but vital path back to education. Before the conflict began in October 2023, Gaza had 17 higher education institutions, but most of their hundreds of buildings now lie in ruins, with more than 100 university structures destroyed and about 200 staff members killed, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Education.
At Al Azhar University in Gaza, administrators and students say they are determined not to let the war erase an entire generation’s future. Teaching has resumed on a temporary campus, where damaged classrooms and improvised facilities reflect both the scale of destruction and the determination of students returning to continue their studies.
Vice Chancellor Dr Muhammad Shubeir said the university kept teaching online during the war, even as staff worked from dangerous areas to secure satellite internet. He explained that once conditions allowed, the school moved to restore in person learning, despite the complete destruction of its large new campus in the Al Zahra area, now part of the Netzarim corridor.
Shubeir stressed that Al Azhar is an academic institution that promotes peace, coexistence and respect, and said the university repeatedly told all parties it had no role in the conflict. He recalled an Israeli intelligence call ordering the evacuation of the Zahra campus and said he warned that attacking educational facilities would violate the Fourth Geneva Convention, but the buildings were still demolished.
The Israeli military told ABC News it discovered Hamas infrastructure at Al Azhar and that the site was used for military activities. The IDF said its forces struck armed militants and an anti tank position near the university in October 2024 and later destroyed tunnels, weapons and other “terror infrastructure” hidden on the campus and linked to a nearby school.
Shubeir estimated that wiping out the new campus cost the university around 30 million dollars, with total losses in buildings, equipment and movable assets exceeding 40 million dollars. Even so, he said the message from Gaza remains that people there want life, peace and stability, and that education is central to that hope.
For many students, returning to class is both inspiring and overwhelming. First year pharmacy student Mira Al Agha said she came back because she believes education is the only sustainable path forward, even though she lost normal school years, study materials and faces constant financial and transport challenges.
Mira’s daily commute from Khan Younis to Gaza City is expensive and unpredictable, and she says students urgently need better transport, internet and study spaces. She added that despite inadequate facilities, university staff are working step by step to keep learning alive, which gives students motivation to continue.
Dentistry students face extra hurdles because their training depends on specialised labs and equipment that were almost entirely destroyed. Fifth year dental student Abdul Rahman Amer said seeing the dental school in ruins initially made him lose hope of ever graduating, but temporary facilities have given him a new sense of purpose.
Amer leaves home before sunrise and spends around 50 dollars a day on transport, while also struggling to find affordable dental materials. He said these are not luxuries but essential tools to relieve patients’ pain, and insisted he will not give up because finishing his studies is the only real way forward.
Shubeir said the partial reopening of universities shows that rebuilding Gaza must start with protecting students’ futures. He urged the international community to help restore academic life, stressing that while buildings have been destroyed, the will to learn remains and education is the foundation for recovery, peace and dignity.
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