Across Gaza, the destruction of universities and schools has gone far beyond the physical ruins of buildings, it has reached into the very fabric of the people’s intellectual and cultural existence. What was once a vibrant network of learning and innovation has been reduced to dust and silence, marking a profound attempt to erase a generation’s knowledge and potential.

Over the past year of genocidal war, almost every university in Gaza, from Al-Azhar and the Islamic University to Al-Quds Open University, has been struck, many reduced entirely to rubble. Libraries that once housed decades of academic research now lie buried under concrete. Laboratories, classrooms, and cultural centres that nurtured thousands of young minds have vanished. Hundreds of lecturers, professors, and researchers have been killed, along with thousands of students who dreamed of contributing to their society’s recovery.

This destruction has not only paralysed the education system but also targeted the community’s intellectual core. Education in Gaza has long stood as one of the last remaining tools of resilience, a way for its people to assert dignity and continuity despite years of blockade and deprivation. The deliberate devastation of that system aims to sever the chain of knowledge and memory that binds generations together.

Today, the few surviving students study by candlelight, using phones with little or no connection, while their professors teach from temporary shelters or exile. Yet even amid the ruins, the desire to learn remains unbroken, an act of quiet defiance against a campaign that seeks to erase not only buildings, but the very idea of a future built on education.