Exams on the beach: Israel laid waste to Gaza’s classrooms – now students sit on the sand
This article first appeared on our partner site, Independent Arabia
Under an April sun already holding the sharp heat of summer, Iyad, a fourth-year engineering student, drags his feet across the sand of Gaza’s shoreline. There is no fishing rod in his hand nor a beach towel over his shoulder; instead, he clutches a worn-out plastic folder under his arm containing pages of his coursework on reinforced concrete.
A few metres from the crashing waves stood a sign reading: “Exam Hall: Seashore”. Beside it, a long row of colourful plastic chairs had been neatly arranged on the sand, without desks, for university students to sit their exams.
“Before the war, I would walk onto campus well dressed, sit my exams in an air-conditioned classroom, and then visit the main conference hall,” Iyad recounted to Independent Arabia.
He took his place on chair number 14, resting his folder on his knees as a makeshift desk. Beside him, his classmate Omar wiped sweat from his brow with the collar of his shirt. In front of them stood Hamid, the lecturer who had lost both his home and his university but not his authority. He moved with quiet dignity across the sand, silently handing out the exam papers.
“Begin in the name of God. You have two hours. And do not forget that your names are the most important thing you will write today, so your rights are not lost in this chaos,” he said, his voice blending with the sound of the waves. At once, the students began reading the final exam questions that stood between them and graduation.
Iyad began reading the first question as strong sea winds tried to snatch the paper from his hands. He placed a bottle of water on top of it as a weight, anchoring his dream to the page. A strange mix of sounds filled his ears: the relentless roar of the waves, the cry of a child in a nearby displacement tent, and the distant hum of a surveillance drone on the horizon.
He closed his eyes for a moment, inhaled the sharp scent of iodine, and imagined himself back in that old lecture hall with its wooden seats. Then he began writing quickly, solving complex mathematical equations as though his pen were his only means of striking back against the reality of displacement.
As the exam reached its midpoint, the sun grew harsher. There was no air conditioning; the sea breeze offered the only relief. For a brief moment, Iyad looked towards the horizon, catching sight of a small child running along the water’s edge, before returning his gaze to his equation. In that instant, he realised that passing this exam was not just a mark on an academic record, but a declaration that the engineer within him had not been buried beneath the rubble of the university buildings destroyed by Israel.
As time ran out, Iyad stood up, brushing the sand from his trousers. He looked at the rows of chairs beginning to empty, then handed in his paper. The scene was not merely a university exam; it was a silent epic, written in the ink of determination across the soft sands of Gaza’s shore.
He returned to his tent carrying his folder, filled with hope that the person who solved reinforced concrete equations under the blazing sun would one day be capable of rebuilding all that had been destroyed.
Gaza’s education system has lost irreplaceable human capital. More than 20,000 students across school and university levels have been killed. The sector has also lost over 1,000 teachers and administrative staff, in addition to more than 220 university professors and scientists, many of whom were internationally recognised authorities in specialised academic fields.
Academic institutions have been reduced to rubble or overcrowded shelters, while Gaza’s main university buildings have been fully or partially destroyed. This includes advanced laboratories, smart lecture halls, and research centres.
The spokesperson for the Israeli army, Avichay Adraee, said: “Universities were transformed from educational institutions into centres for developing combat capabilities, training military intelligence personnel and factories for producing explosive materials. Physics and chemistry laboratories in universities were used to develop the range of rockets and the technical capabilities of [Hamas].”
