Haya Abu Hjeer graduated with a degree in computer science in Gaza in 2023 and had dreamed of pursuing a master’s degree. But then, Israel launched its genocide on Gaza, destroying or damaging all 12 universities within the Gaza Strip by May 2024, and killing hundreds of university students and academics.

On July 9, 2024, Abu Hjeer earned a chance to keep pursuing a brighter future: She was accepted for a scholarship at the University of Tuscia in Italy to study artificial intelligence and archival science. She never imagined that the road to college would be paved with such pain; only days after her acceptance, Abu Hjeer’s father and brother were killed in an Israeli attack while they searched for a bag of flour during the famine.

“It was the hardest decision of my life … to leave my

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