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DUBAI: When Balsam received an unconditional offer from a UK university to continue her studies in artificial intelligence, it felt as though a door had opened offering a way out of war-torn Gaza to a parallel universe.

Lancaster University offered the 27-year-old an unconditional place to pursue a master’s degree in a field she loves.

Her ambition is to design accessible learning tools for children in conflict zones who have lost access to classrooms.

That goal, however, may yet remain out of reach, as Balsam remains trapped in Gaza, where Israel’s blockades and bombardment have sealed nearly every exit.

Speaking to Arab News via WhatsApp, she described her admission as “a beacon of hope amid the devastation.”

“This acceptance means a great deal to me,” she said. “It’s not just an academic opportunity; it’s a light in the darkness we are currently living in.”

Her struggle is far from unique. Balsam is one of many talented young Gazans who earned places at universities in Europe and the US, only to see their futures deferred by closed borders, stalled visas and a grinding war.

With the academic year already underway at many institutions, students risk losing scholarships if they cannot leave soon. Campaigners warn that every delay wastes both money and human potential.

“Evacuations have been challenging and hard-won since the borders have closed, leaving students and scholars with no way to take up opportunities offered abroad,” a spokesperson for Scholars at Risk, an international network that promotes academic freedom, told Arab News.

The organization stressed it is “not directly engaged in evacuation efforts,” but continues to provide assistance to scholars while monitoring academic freedom conditions in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Even so, it notes there have been limited successes, thanks to the “intensive efforts of governments, university leaders, and civil society organizations,” particularly in Ireland, France, Finland and the UK in recent months.

The UK alone has offered about 40 fully funded places, including the prestigious Chevening Scholarships. Nonetheless, all remain stranded in the enclave.

In early August, the British government told nine Gaza students awarded Chevening Scholarships that it was working to facilitate their evacuation, the BBC reported. The former home secretary, Yvette Cooper, also approved plans to help about 30 more students with private, fully funded scholarships.

“This remains a complex and challenging task, but the home secretary has made it crystal clear to her officials that she wants no stone unturned in efforts to ensure there are arrangements in place to allow this cohort of talented students to take up their places at UK universities as soon as possible,” a Home Office source told The Guardian in late August.

On Sept. 1, Cooper told the UK Parliament the Home Office was in the process of putting in place “systems to issue expedited visas with biometric checks” for the 40 Gaza students.

“Later this year, we will set out plans to establish a permanent framework for refugee students to come and study in the UK,” she added.

The breakthrough followed months of lobbying by MPs, academics and campaigners urging the government to defer biometric checks for Gaza students.

Since October 2023, Gaza’s visa application center has been closed. Without biometric data, students cannot secure the visas they need.

But leaving Gaza also requires Israeli approval to exit and for onward travel through Jordan or Egypt to complete visa biometrics. With no end to the conflict in sight, safe passage remains elusive.

Gaza40, a UK-based campaign advocating for the 40 scholarship students, warned that time was running out.

“We emphasize the urgency of our students’ situations, with many who feel they may die before receiving concrete support for evacuation, and some risk losing scholarships if the government does not evacuate them before deadlines,” the group said in a statement.

Scholars at Risk has likewise urged governments to increase efforts “in collaboration with higher education institutions when possible, to facilitate the safe passage of individuals out of Gaza.”

Since October 2023, Israel’s offensive has killed at least 64,600 Palestinians and wounded more than 163,300 others, according to Gaza’s health authority. Urban areas have been destroyed, while ceasefire talks remain fragile and inconclusive.

Israel mounted operations in Gaza in retaliation for the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, which saw some 1,200 people killed, the majority of them civilians, and around 250 taken hostage, a handful of which are thought to remain alive in Gaza.

Scholars at Risk said Gaza’s academic infrastructure was now “effectively devastated.”

“Palestinian students, scholars, and universities have faced extreme challenges in the context of Israel’s ongoing military action in Gaza and raids in the West Bank,” the organization’s spokesperson said.

“By 2024-25, Gaza’s higher education infrastructure had been largely destroyed.”

Before October 2023, about 88,000 students were enrolled in higher education, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. Today, all 19 institutions lie in ruins.

Israa University was the last to be demolished by Israeli forces in January 2024, according to the UN Human Rights Office.

Major campuses, including the Islamic University of Gaza, Al-Azhar University, and Al-Quds Open University, have been bombed, leveled or repurposed as Israeli military sites.

Balsam has been fortunate. Her university offer was initially conditional upon passing English language requirements — a routine step in most countries but nearly impossible in Gaza, where all test centers are shuttered.

“All English test centers have been destroyed, and there is no safe environment to take an exam,” she said. “We lack basic necessities — electricity, a stable internet connection, and even physical safety.”

Her initial attempts to prove her proficiency through prior coursework and professional experience were rejected. Without unconditional admission, she was unable to obtain a Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies, the document needed for a student visa.

“I was very frustrated and had lost hope of getting an unconditional offer,” she said. “But in the end, after many attempts and with the support of the Gaza40 students organizers, I got it. I want to give hope to many students who have not yet received an unconditional offer.”

Despite the unconditional offer to study in safety, Balsam’s family faces an ongoing ordeal after their house was destroyed on July 28. “We have now lost our home and all our memories,” she said. “My family and I are in the street, trying to comprehend what has happened to us.”

Yet the loss has only hardened her resolve: “I want to go abroad, get an education, and return to lift up my society and prove that a person can rise from under the rubble and build a bright future.

“Hope is my only fuel right now, and I am confident that knowledge will light my path and the path of my generation.”

Her perseverance echoed that of Huthayfa, another Gazan student who received an unconditional offer to study city planning at the UK’s University of Glasgow. However, he cannot leave.

“The crossings, which are the only way out of Gaza, are completely closed under strict control, and no one can leave the Strip,” the 24-year-old told Arab News via WhatsApp. Israel’s bombardment has wiped out the very institutions needed to process travel documents, he added.

For many families stripped of their livelihoods, the financial cost of studying abroad has become almost impossible to meet.

Famine was confirmed in Gaza City on August 22 by UN-backed food security experts, although aid teams had long warned of mass starvation across the enclave under the Israeli blockade. By the end of September, famine is expected to spread into Deir Al-Balah and Khan Yunis, according to Tom Fletcher, the UN emergency relief coordinator.

Yet, like Balsam, Huthayfa refuses to surrender his dream. “Despite the blockade, the destruction, and the suffering we endure, I am still holding on to my dream,” he said. “Education is the only way to rebuild Gaza and create a better future for our generations to come.”

Huthayfa prepared his applications in hospital corridors, encouraged by doctors and driven by persistence. For him, urban planning is not just a career path but a mission to rebuild Gaza on a human scale.

“Urban planning is not just about designing new buildings, but about designing the future of a city that has lost so many of its essential elements,” he said. “Rebuilding Gaza will not just be a professional task; it will be a humanitarian mission.

“At the end of each session in the corridors, I would stand and tell myself, ‘I will come back here again and again until I get what I want,’ because all of these people deserve life, and they deserve a future,” he said.

While the UK weighs its options, other European countries have moved more decisively. Ireland evacuated 52 Gaza students last month, allowing them to resume studies in Dublin and Cork after completing biometrics in Jordan and Turkiye. France, Italy, and Belgium have adopted similar measures.

For now, the ambitions of Gaza’s brightest minds remain suspended between promise and devastation. Universities lie in rubble, academic deadlines loom, and the few routes out of the enclave are sealed by war and bureaucracy.
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