Haya Abu Hjeer graduated with a degree in computer science in Gaza in 2023 and had dreamed of pursuing a master’s degree. But then, Israel launched its genocide on Gaza, destroying or damaging all 12 universities within the Gaza Strip by May 2024, and killing hundreds of university students and academics.
On July 9, 2024, Abu Hjeer earned a chance to keep pursuing a brighter future: She was accepted for a scholarship at the University of Tuscia in Italy to study artificial intelligence and archival science. She never imagined that the road to college would be paved with such pain; only days after her acceptance, Abu Hjeer’s father and brother were killed in an Israeli attack while they searched for a bag of flour during the famine.
“It was the hardest decision of my life … to leave my mother broken like that,” Abu Hjeer, who is now in Italy, told Prism in a phone interview. “But I felt I had to continue for everyone who’s gone.”
As they fight to survive amid the ruins of Gaza, some students have received scholarships to pursue higher education in European and Arab countries and have been evacuated through border crossings closed to most others.
At first glance, the scholarships appear to be a necessary humanitarian gesture. But behind them lies a difficult question, one that touches not only on education, but also on the future of Palestinian existence itself: Are these scholarships a path to survival, or the beginning of a new wave of migration that will drain Gaza of its youth and talent?
“Scholarships for Gazan students and academics are both a lifeline and a paradox,” Wesam Amer, former dean of the Faculty of Communication and Languages at Gaza University, who is now a visiting professor at the University of Cambridge, told Prism in a written response. “On one hand, they offer vital opportunities to continue learning after everything has been destroyed. On the other, they risk turning education into a pathway of forced academic exile.”
A Question of Survival
Gaza’s entire educational infrastructure has nearly collapsed since the start of the genocide. By July 2024, education had been disrupted for more than 625,000 children after about 93% of school buildings sustained some damage from Israeli attacks, and about 85% required full reconstruction or significant rehabilitation before they would be usable, according to the 2024 Occupied Palestinian Territories Education Cluster report. Between Oct. 7, 2023, and Sept. 2, 2025, Israel killed 17,237 students and 741 teachers, according to the Cluster’s 2025 snapshot.
These figures are not just statistics; they represent a generation deprived of its right to learn, and a society stripped of one of its foundations for survival. Amid this violence and destruction, international scholarships have become one of the few remaining pathways for Palestinian students in Gaza to continue their education.
For Abu Hjeer, that harrowing journey started when she saw a Facebook post about a scholarship at the University of Tuscia, part of the Italian Universities for Palestinian Students program, a government initiative run by the Conference of Italian University Rectors, which this year offered scholarships to 35 Palestinian students from Gaza and the West Bank.
After receiving her acceptance, Abu Hjeer wrote daily to the Italian Consulate in Jerusalem, urging officials there to speed up the evacuation process, so she could escape the genocide with a chance of survival like dozens of other students with foreign scholarships. By late September, the long-awaited call came: Students were to leave at 2 a.m. from a gathering point in southern Gaza, Abu Hjeer recalled.
Dozens of students and their families gathered, preparing for evacuation to Italy, Russia, Belgium, the U.K., and Germany, coordinated by foreign missions and the International Committee of the Red Cross. Accompanied by Red Cross staff and several foreigners, the students boarded buses with a heavy mix of fear and hope.
At Bani Suhaila, a town east of Khan Younis, an Israeli armored vehicle blocked their way and aimed rocket-propelled grenade launchers at them, throwing everyone into panic. The Red Cross withdrew under army orders, leaving the convoy stranded for hours, Abu Hjeer said.
They eventually moved toward the Kerem Shalom crossing, where they were detained and searched. Israeli female soldiers confiscated their small bags and placed their offici