“I can’t guarantee my scholarship, or even my life” Gazan student with Durham scholarship awaits evacuation 

By Isla Mustin

Content warning: Mentions of conflict, displacement and famine

Four Palestinian students awarded Durham University scholarships remain trapped in Gaza, but a recent UK government decision to evacuate around 40 scholarship-holders has raised hopes they may soon be able to take up their places in the UK.

They would be the first students to leave Gaza for the UK since the war began in 2023, though each departure still requires Israeli approval and visa biometric checks in a third country.

Among them is Omar Salah, who spoke to Palatinate about survival, the devastation of daily life in Gaza, and his hopes of studying in Durham. 

Before October 7th 2023, Omar, from the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood in Gaza City, worked as an English teacher at The University College of Applied Sciences and was close to completing a Master’s in Translation Studies at the Islamic University. Alongside his teaching, he was learning cloud engineering. 

That life ended abruptly when he and his family were forced to evacuate their home on October 13th 2023 and relocated to Deir al-Balah, in the southern Gaza Strip. 

“I never realised how easy my life was until I was displaced to Deir al-Balah, where nothing is easily accessible. Filling water containers, finding internet, and charging devices require hours of effort and long queues,” Omar explained.

Omar was unable to graduate after his thesis supervisor, the poet and author, Refaat Alareer, was killed during an attack. “I felt depressed and couldn’t continue any longer,” he said. “I entirely lost interest despite being so close to completion.”

The universities where he taught and studied were also destroyed. “They are just rubble now. While we tried to move to online teaching, not having access to the internet meant I couldn’t stay connected with my students and lost my job. I lost so many of my colleagues, including my dear friend Khalil.

“I also missed out on a Teaching Assistant Scholarship to teach Arabic in the United States, as the process came to a halt during the genocide.

“Life had shifted into survival mode,” Omar reflected. “I felt really bad about myself in these new circumstances, so I started from ground zero and wanted to try new things.” 

This resulted in Omar seeking new ways to create. He began experimenting with documentary making and co-wrote a book with his sister Hala, Legacies in Blood, documenting the stories of 15 Palestinians – some of whom were killed during the war. “All those mentioned are innocent people who wanted to live. They all had goals, families, and many of them were planning to continue their studies or get married and have kids.”

“The occupation shattered these dreams into rubble. It wasn’t easy to write their stories, but we have to immortalise them by talking about them. I had to live every story with pain and hope.” 

For Omar, Durham University had been a long-held dream. “Since my bachelor’s degree, I have wanted to study there. I saw a Gazan who had a scholarship, and I felt so attracted to it. The classic buildings like the cathedral, the beautiful city, and the nature;  I loved everything.”

After a long application process, Omar was awarded the Durham Palestine Education Trust Scholarship to complete a Masters in Management. The programme, he explained, resonated with his aid work during the war. 

“Filling water containers, finding internet, and charging devices require hours of effort and long queues”

“We cooked food for people, we distributed winter clothes and food vouchers for those who needed it most. The programme at Durham University  taught about supply chains, which I became interested in during my distribution of aid. Finding the best channels to supply goods into Gaza, the best prices, and who I could serve in the population. It was something I wanted to learn more about, so I decided to apply.”

However, life after October 7th was unlike anything Omar had endured before, with the displacement transforming his daily existence. “We lived through many aggressions before – in 2008, 2012, 2014 and 2022 – but this was the first time I needed to escape my house. This one was drastically different – we are now living the worst days in our life,” he told Palatinate. 

The last four months have been defined by famine and starvation. “It changed my life from being a person who was dreaming, who had goals, who thought about the next year, the future, to becoming someone who thinks only about what to eat today and whether I can secure food for tomorrow. 

“These few months have been the hardest of my life as we face famine,” Omar said. “ I wasn’t able to function, I could hardly focus and even moving I felt dizzy.”

Even with money, food remained scarce. “If we were lucky, we ate one filling meal a day. Prices at the market skyrocketed. To get $100 in cash, you needed to pay a $50 commission to a middleman. It wasn’t just about the lack of food, but the impossibility of accessing it.”

When a temporary truce allowed him to return briefly to his home in January, Omar found devastation. The occupation had broken into his home, the doors and windows had been blown out, shrapnel holes marked the walls and his bedroom was destroyed. 

“We worked very hard to clean the mess and fix what we could,” he said. “We were fortunate it wasn’t rubble, and while we felt at home, everything was different.”

“It was hard to get water, sewage was all over the street, and smoke everywhere from the destruction. Living there became unbearable.”

Eventually, the family moved again back to Deir al-Balah, where they had better access to water and the internet. Still, life remains dominated by survival. “My routine is very boring,” Omar explained. “I check the market for food, make a fire to cook, and fill up the gallons when water comes to the neighbourhood twice a week.”

“I always make sure to water the trees in the garden we live in,” he added. 

We have a solar panel, so I spend a little time on my laptop revising cloud engineering. But I don’t have the energy to be the person I used to be –  to make content or pursue projects I loved before the war and the famine.”

The hardest part, Omar explained, is the uncertainty. “Nothing is guaranteed. You may lose your life at any moment, you may not wake up the next morning. You eat today, you may not eat tomorrow.”

“The only way to bear this uncertainty is to have hope that tomorrow will be better. But the problem is, tomorrow is not always better – mostly, tomorrow is worse.”

Each day, Omar weighs the struggle to survive against the hope of a future beyond Gaza. “Since October 7th and losing my job, I have learnt so many lessons about myself,” he reflected. “I have learnt how to plan in times of crisis and disaster – you have to look at exactly what is in front of you. Just one step each time.”

Until recently, visa restrictions left Omar stranded while fellow scholarship students managed to reach other European countries including France, Ireland and Italy. Now, despite the UK government’s decision to support the evacuation of around 40 scholarship-holders, Omar has yet to hear if he is included, leaving the path ahead uncertain.

“It changed my life from being a person who was dreaming, who had goals, who thought about the next year, the future, to becoming someone who thinks only about what to eat today and whether I can secure food for tomorrow”

Omar SALAH

“I feel like I could lose my chance to study at Durham at any moment. I am worried and I keep hoping something could be better tomorrow, but I don’t hear anything. Our lives are built on waiting, but we are used to that now.”

“At the beginning I didn’t think it was going to be a big problem. But as my studies are approaching, it’s not going to be too long before I need to start.”

“I am losing my chance to study and to have my dream achieved. I was over the moon when I got the scholarship, but this was just the beginning. It’s hard to be happy until I actually am in the UK. I can’t guarantee my scholarship, or even my life.”

Despite this, Omar is determined not to give up. “We still believe there is time to get out in the very near future. We are holding on to hope that this will work. It means so much to us; we have worked incredibly hard to earn these scholarships.”

Even if he is granted a visa, leaving Gaza will not be simple. “I am leaving my family in the midst of a genocide and hardships. I do so many tasks for my family, so leaving them behind with all this is a regretful feeling. Surviving, eating clean food in a beautiful place while they suffer – either way, leaving for the UK will be difficult.”

Images: Omar Salah