According to UN education experts, Gaza’s scientific and academic infrastructure has been “devastated” by conflict. Nearly every school has been damaged or destroyed, including all of Gaza’s universities, affecting more than half a million students, UN experts report. Additionally, hundreds of teachers and at least three university presidents have been killed across Gaza.
“I am now living in Deir al-Balah, where the majority of the population are now people who were forced to evacuate from Rafah, Khan Yunis and other areas in Gaza. More than a million Palestinians now live in this small city, lacking all the necessities of life, including clean water, food, medicine and health care.
My people are staying in the streets, or in schools that have become shelters. We live in tents where the temperature reaches above 40 degrees Celsius. You cannot imagine what life is like in the tents. Everything is boiling hot. The children, the water – even the canned food. The privacy and dignity of Palestinians are violated constantly.
We are living in hell. Every day we lose loved ones, our students and our colleagues. I lost my sister, and her husband and son. For more than nine months, we have been running away – every day, from death to death.
We face all kinds of death: direct, as a result of missile and artillery bombardment, and indirect, as a result of the Israeli siege, malnutrition and disease. A recent report published by The Lancet tried to estimate these indirect deaths and show the magnitude of our disaster. With cleaning materials and hygiene products prevented from entering Gaza, skin diseases are spreading. Their effects can be seen on our bodies, and those of our children.
The feeling cannot be described – but I will try to express in words these repeated tragic moments, in which I have heard about the targeting of my students and colleagues, or my scientific laboratory, which I spent many years trying to make a place to teach generations not only science, but also the principles of peace, love and humanity.
I cannot forget the day when I had my last conversation with one of my former students, who had become my right hand in our small research laboratory. Just eight hours later, I learned that she had been killed, along with all of her family. The only survivor was her 4-year-old daughter.
She was a young, promising woman researcher. She was killed before we could publish the results of her master’s thesis.
She is not the only one – she is one of many other innocent people who have been killed during this conflict, including the rector of my university, Dr. Sufyah Tayeh, who was killed in an airstrike along with all of his family.
I felt as if I was losing a part of my body with every stone that fell from our universities due to their missiles, and I lost my soul when I heard of the killings of my students and colleagues.
Protecting Science in Times of Crisis
The report offers a strategic framework for the global scientific community, focusing on prevention, protection, and rebuilding through systematic and coordinated crisis management.
International Science Council. (February 2024). Protecting Science in Times of Crisis. https://council.science/publications/protecting-science-in-times-of-crisis DOI: 10.24948/2024.01
Full paper Executive SummaryBeing a scientist in Gaza is a huge responsibility. The path is filled with obstacles – especially for researchers in the field of practical science like chemistry, biology and physics.
Researchers in Gaza do not have access to sufficient materials, including chemicals, scientific instruments and replacement parts, since 2007. The lack of infrastructure affects researchers in all fields of science, and has limited the number of publications and our quality of research. We face these obstacles on a daily basis, and they prevent us from contributing to international efforts to confront issues like poverty and disease.
The same obstacles affect the teaching of science in schools and universities; for a long time, schools and universities have been unable to perform many science experiments in the curriculum.
With difficulty, we have managed to get around some of these obstacles, in part through cooperation with researchers around the world. These relationships have helped scientists in Gaza to publish their work in international journals.
To enable school science experiments, just before the war, we had started to produce some reagents and chemicals and collect them in a ‘science kit’ for students. Unfortunately, the war started before we could complete this project.
During the war, I have continued to teach online. This has been difficult due to the poor internet connection and lack of electricity, and the lack of security and safety. There is no safe place in Gaza. We and our students are living under pressure, with the threat of bombardment at any time.
But we have to try, and to keep trying. As Palestinians, we do not have oil and gas or natural resources. Education is our capital.
I strongly believe that we are still able to rebuild our universities and labs. Those hopes and dreams will not come true without the support of our colleagues in the international scientific community.
In the spirit of the universal right to education, and our moral obligation to our students who have been deprived of this right due to the war, I invite the entire scientific community to offer a hand to Palestinian students and scholars.
This is the only way to enable us to restart our scientific life. I am sure this will help to spread the principles of love, peace, progress and prosperity, fostering a more humane world.”
Disclaimer
The information, opinions and recommendations presented in our guest blogs are those of the individual contributors, and do not necessarily reflect the values and beliefs of the International Science Council
Gaza’s universities are destroyed, as are many teaching and research facilities in the Palestinian territories. As and when people are able to leave, the international scientific community expects many researchers and academics in Gaza will want to seek safety and opportunities to work remotely or abroad, at least temporarily.
The ISC is compiling offers of assistance from its network of Members and partners, and the global scientific community, to support at-risk Palestinian scholars and students.
Photo de Mohammed Ibrahim sur Unsplash
Read more about Reclaiming science as a human right: Comment from the UN Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights 
Read more about Advancing the right to science: A call for legal protections and inclusive participation 
Read more about Societal responsibilities of scientific collaborations between scientists and human rights organizations 