The new academic semester kicked off in Gaza in late March. But the mornings no longer carry the familiar vibrance of students waiting for buses, crossing cities towards universities and colleges.That feeling has instead been replaced by the hardship of displacement.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listIsrael’s destructive campaign has reduced Gaza’s academic institutions to rubble, many now repurposed as crowded shelters for displaced families. With campuses gone, in-person education has largely disappeared, forcing universities to shift to online learning. But for students living in tents, struggling to secure food, water, electricity, and internet, attending a lecture, even online, has become a privilege.Amid this chaos, a glimmer of hope has materialised.In the densely crowded area of al-Mawasi in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, a new academic initiative is taking shape. Scholars Without Borders, a US nongovernmental organisation, has established what it calls “University City”, a makeshift academic space designed to bring students back into lecture halls.Built from wood, metal sheets, and whatever materials could be sourced locally, the site stands as a modest reconstruction of what Gaza’s academic life once looked like.“Despite the hardships, our mission is to bring education closer to students in a better environment,” said Hamza Abu Daqqa, the organisation’s representative in Gaza.“We designed this space to serve multiple academic institutions and as many students as possible,” he added. “There are six halls here, accommodating up to 600 students a day. It may look simple, but it creates a sense of normal academic life, something students have been d …
