\n<\/p>\n
Karim al-Masri was supposed to start his final exams on Saturday morning, just a few weeks shy of graduating. Instead, he spent his morning filling bags of water to freeze into ice, which he sold to support his family.<\/p>\n
\u201cI should have been studying and preparing for my final exams,\u201d said Mr. al-Masri, 18. But, more than eight months into the war, \u201cI\u2019m spending my days working to provide for my family to cope with the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. al-Masri was one of nearly 39,000 students in Gaza who <\/span>were unable to take their high school final examinations scheduled to begin on Saturday across the Palestinian territories and in Jordan, and who would not be able to graduate, according to the Palestinian Education Ministry.<\/p>\n The war has devastated Gaza\u2019s education system<\/a> which was already struggling after several wars and escalations since 2008. At least 625,000 children are missing out on education in Gaza, according to UNRWA, the U.N. agency that assists Palestinians, with schools shut since the war began in October, just over a month into the school year.<\/p>\n More than 76 percent of schools in Gaza would require rebuilding or major rehabilitation to become functional after Israel\u2019s monthslong offensive, according to UNRWA, which operates many schools in the Gaza Strip. The majority of these schools have been used as shelters to house the many displaced families in Gaza, most of whom are living in miserable conditions.<\/p>\n Mr. al-Masri said that he dreamed of studying information technology at the Islamic University of Gaza or the University College of Applied Sciences \u2014 both of which have been destroyed by Israeli bombardment. All of Gaza\u2019s 12 universities<\/a> have been severely damaged or destroyed by fighting, according to the United Nations.<\/p>\n Instead of pinning his hopes on going back to school and graduating, he said the war had shifted his priorities, and he was now focused on working to continue supporting his family. While selling ice in his town of Deir al Balah in central Gaza, Mr. al-Masri said he often walked past his school, where \u201cthe classrooms have turned into shelters,\u201d and when he peeks inside, he is \u201cfilled with agony.\u201d<\/p>\n Islam al-Najjar, 18, who was also supposed to be taking her first final exam on Saturday, said that her school in Deir al Balah, to which many Gazans have fled from Israel\u2019s Rafah offensive, had also been turned into a shelter.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t imagine going back to see my school, a place where we learn, turned into a shelter full of displaced people living in miserable conditions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we do go back, we won\u2019t be seeing all of the same faces,\u201d she said, referring to her classmate, two teachers and her principal who had been killed during the war.<\/p>\n Ms. al-Najjar remains hopeful about the possibility of being able to go back to school and graduating. Despite the \u201cmany hurdles to everything you want to achieve in Gaza,\u201d she said, she dreams of studying abroad and has set her sights on Harvard University or the University of Oxford to study business.<\/p>\n \u201cI was very excited for my final year of school and to begin a new chapter,\u201d said Ms. al-Najjar, the eldest in her family, who had been planning her graduation celebrations before the war started. \u201cBut of course, the war put a stop to everything.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy does the spring of our life coincide with the fall of our country?\u201d said Ms. al-Najjar. \u201cIs it our fault that we dared to dream?\u201d<\/p>\n Abu Bakr Bashir contributed reporting from London.<\/p>\n