Gaza’s oldest university shelters the displaced

Prior to Israel's genocidal war on the Gaza Strip that began in October 2023, the Islamic University welcomed thousands of students in eleven faculties, including medicine, engineering, liberal arts and information technology. Now, however, the campus shelters thousands of Palestinians displaced by the ongoing war.

The university's main campus in Gaza City was bombed on October 9, 2023, just two days into Israel's war. Like the rest of Gaza's academic institutions, the university could no longer function, and suspended its activities. When it resumed coursework on a smaller scale in the second half of 2024, the university had to adopt distance learning, as its facilities were no longer equipped for in-person classes, and reconstruction wasn't an option with the ongoing war.

For lack of viable options and due to the dire need, what remains of the university's buildings soon became shelter for the displaced. After thousands of displaced Palestinians returned from southern Gaza during the short-lived ceasefire of winter 2025, and with Occupation forces ordering residents to evacuate ever-larger swathes of territory, the university's ruins have now grown crowded with people fleeing the ongoing aggression.

Today, the university houses families of multiple generations. Some include graduates of the university, such as Abdallah Khedr from the Jabalia refugee camp and who graduated in 2016 with a a degree in psychology, and now shelters in a lecture hall where he once attended classes.

The displaced have pitched tents in the ruins of lecture halls, administrative buildings, the university library and the science labs, as well as the burnt-out shell of the auditorium. Tents fill the university's courtyards and sports field, sheltering those recently displaced by Israeli military operations in the neighboring area, while the entrances to faculty buildings have become a playground for displaced children.

Text and images: Zuheir Dola and Mostafa Al-Bayed