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Mona Zaqout sat in the living room of the besieged Gaza Strip, staring at her phone. She is waiting to receive the results of her last school year’s exam, known as “Tawjihi” in the area.
Next to her is her 18-year-old brother Ahmed, who is one year older than her and is also looking forward to his results. They were surrounded by family members, and they eagerly refreshed their phones and laptops to read the results.
When they slowly came in, Ahmed’s first appeared. He scored 98.4%, which aroused enthusiastic cheers and applause from relatives.
A moment later, when her mother read out her score, Mona screamed in disbelief-as high as 98.7%.
Considering the conditions they endured in the months leading up to the final exams starting on June 24th and ending on July 12th, the couple couldn’t believe their results were so good.
Only a few weeks after Israel launched a deadly bombing of the already ravaged Gaza Strip, they underwent a series of tests.This 11-day offensiveBeginning on May 10, the killing of at least 260 Palestinians, including 66 children, was one of Israel’s most violent attacks on Gaza, targeting a wide range of civilian buildings.
On the Israeli side, 13 people were killed by rockets fired by Palestinian groups from the enclave.
Considering the environment they endured a few months before the final exams, Ahmed and Mona couldn’t believe their scores were so high. [Hosam Salem/Al Jazeera]Like thousands of others, Mona and Ahmed study tirelessly, knowing that the results will determine their entire track of higher education.
Students in the region usually prepare for these exams from the beginning of the school year, but people interviewed by Al Jazeera say how difficult it is given the obstacles they face, especially as Palestinians.
According to data released by the Ministry of Education, nearly 83,000 students took the exam in the Occupied Palestinian Territory this year, with a pass rate of 71.
During the entire attack, at least four students were killed and another 70 were injured. According to the Gaza authorities, they plan to retake the exam at a later date.
‘Maybe I won’t die’
On the grounds that the coronavirus pandemic has caused school closures, Tensions in Occupied East Jerusalem escalateAs well as the Israeli attack on Gaza from May 10 to 21, Mona and Ahmed described the months before the exam as “the hardest so far.”
“Psychological stress is different from anyone else,” Mona told Al Jazeera. “During the 11 days of war, every time I heard the sound of an air strike, I would curl up and cry,” she said.
A few days after the attack, the 17-year-old tried to “adapt to the situation” and accept the sound of the missile falling. She will try to learn, but will immediately forget everything she has read.
At the time, Ahmed felt equally helpless and described the 11 days as a “nightmare.” For five consecutive days, he lived in fear, saying that he could not learn at all. Later, despite the constant explosions, he tried to read for two hours a day.
When asked what motivated him to learn on the offensive, Ahmed said: “I thought to myself: Maybe I won’t die. If I don’t die, I must be prepared.”
The 11-day offensive killed at least 260 Palestinians, including 66 children, and was one of Israel’s most violent attacks on Gaza, with a wide range of targets [File: Adel Hana/AP Photo]Before the attack, as part of a mixed learning program aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus, students in the Gaza Strip attended school only three times a week. In the remaining two days, they will have to take virtual lessons.
According to Khaled al-Ailah, a teacher at the Gaza Middle School, distance learning is one of the most difficult challenges this year.
“Many teachers have not received training in distance learning, and many people cannot use electronic devices and computers,” said the geography teacher.
“Of course, the most obvious reason why this is a challenging learning model is that many Palestinian families with poor living conditions cannot even access the Internet,” al-Ailah pointed out.
He added that although the Palestinians in Gaza have gone through difficult times collectively, teachers who are usually regarded as mentors must also maintain a strong and unaffected front when dealing with students.
‘Completely destroyed’
Those who pass the notoriously difficult exams usually celebrate with fireworks, parties, and receive gifts and traditional sweets.
Sara al-Zebda’s home is filled with kunafa (traditional Middle Eastern dessert) and flowers, with a score of 95.3%. Considering that the young woman lost her brother and father in an Israeli airstrike in May, this is a dream come true.
“I was completely broken. I couldn’t learn, and I couldn’t do anything for weeks,” al-Zebda told Al Jazeera, describing the darkest moment in her life.
Sara al-Zebda realized she still needed to review for the final exam about a month after the death of her father and brother [Hosam Salem/Al Jazeera)She recalled the day she last saw her father, and saw him leave the house knowing that there might be a chance he would not return.
“The sounds of the air strikes were on repeat … It wasn’t long till my family and I heard the news of their deaths,” al-Zebda, who had a particularly close relationship with her slain brother Usama, said.
“My brother Usama was the one who used to encourage me to be the best version of myself. He wasn’t just a brother – he was my best friend and my backbone,” she said.
It took al-Zebda about a month to realise she still needed to revise for the final exams. Reading through her notes, she recognised Usama’s handwriting from when he would help her study physics and maths.
“Seeing his handwriting and reading what he left me with really guided me when I was at my worst,” she said.
Others, like Ahmed Nusair, lost all of their study material during the offensive. His home was targeted on the eve of the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr.
Wreckage and rubble have become a normal scene in Gaza, which has been under a crippling Israeli siege since 2007.
The attacks in May destroyed 2,000 residential units that are now unfit for housing, and partially destroyed at least another 22,000 housing units, forcing tens of thousands of Palestinians to take shelter elsewhere.
Some 74 public buildings, including local municipalities, were also destroyed, according to figures released by the information ministry run by Hamas, the group that rules the Gaza Strip.
Ahmed Nusair had already missed a lot of classes when he was infected with COVID-19 earlier this year [Hosam Salem/Al Jazeera]“I remember the ceiling fell on us,” Nusselt told Al Jazeera, recalling the moment his home was attacked. “We all dispersed quickly and started running, but there was nowhere to go.”
“Next I learned that we were in the hospital with our injured sister,” he said. “We sought asylum during the 11-day bombing. When they announced a truce, the first thing I thought of was: I need study materials for the final exam.”
After returning to his partially destroyed home, Nusair hopes to save books, notepads or “anything” to help him pass the exam.
There are only three weeks left before the exam, “everything is over,” he said, adding that he is happy that his score has reached 66.4%.
When he contracted COVID-19 earlier this year, and later when the school closed due to the pandemic, he had already missed a lot of school time.
The Ministry of Health eventually turned his school into a quarantine facility and transferred Nusair’s classes to another school with new administrators and teachers.
“We crave consistency and stability,” he said. “As Tawjihi students, this is too destructive for us.”
Supplementary report by Hosam Salem in Gaza.
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