What it’s like to be in the graduating class of 2025 in Gaza | Nadera Mushtha

While students around the world dream of classrooms, students in Gaza dream of survival

Before the war, students in Gaza were surrounded by books, not bombs. They woke each morning to the voices of their mothers urging them to get ready for school, not to the sound of airstrikes and screaming. They were focused on building a future, working hard to shape a better life for themselves and their homeland.

Before the war started, my best friends and I used to go to the restaurants that were near the university, talking, laughing, eating and studying together, eating our breakfast together under a blue sky before going to the first lecture.

Nadera Mushtha is a writer and poet from Gaza who is studying English language education at the Islamic University of Gaza. Her writing has been published on Al Jazeera, Mondoweiss, the Electronic Intifada, and the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs