Gaza’s Class of 2026

Gaza Students Born in 2008 Complete Tawjihi Exams Amid Prolonged Conflict

Gaza’s 2008 cohort was born during an Israeli military operation, grew up under restrictions following Hamas’s takeover of the territory, and completed final high school exams this summer during the current war.

A student in Gaza reviews for the Tawjihi, the national secondary-school examination that determines university admission and fields of study. For Palestinians, the exam has long carried weight in determining educational and career paths in an area with limited opportunities.

Preparation routines typically include marked textbooks, private lessons, late-night study, and family discussions about results. For this cohort, those preparations began at birth. The year 2008 coincided with Israel’s Operation Cast Lead, launched in December 2008 after sustained rocket fire from Gaza. The students spent their first months amid bombardment and displacement.

In 2012, when the students were learning basic literacy, Israel conducted Operation Pillar of Defense following further rocket attacks. In 2014, they began primary school during Operation Protective Edge, another round of fighting that followed the kidnapping and killing of Israeli teenagers and subsequent rocket barrages. These students grew up amid repeated cycles of violence and the restrictions imposed on Gaza after Hamas seized control in 2007. Drone activity became a routine feature of daily life.

By October 2023, the cohort had reached secondary school. On October 7, Hamas launched an attack into Israel that killed approximately 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages. Israel responded with a large-scale military campaign in Gaza. The destruction of educational infrastructure transformed the final preparation period for the Tawjihi, administered on June 20, 2026.

Schools across Gaza have been damaged, destroyed, overcrowded, or used as shelters since 2023. Electricity and internet access remain intermittent. Textbooks and study materials are scarce. Instruction shifted to tents, cardboard surfaces, and mobile phones. Students searched for charging points and stable connections to access lessons or complete tests. Some balanced study with tasks such as collecting water, gathering fuel, cooking, and caring for younger siblings after family breadwinners were lost.

The exams proceeded electronically, as they had in 2024 and 2025, because physical school buildings could not accommodate testing. Students arranged their own conditions for participation. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Education, 37,698 students in Gaza and 51,499 in the West Bank sat for the exam.

Some students studied from PDFs on phones or attended private lessons when families could pay. Others walked long distances to locations with power. For many, preparation occurred alongside survival demands and the risk of interrupted connections during the test itself.

The Palestinian Ministry of Education reported in June 2026 that 20,647 students had been killed in Gaza and the West Bank since October 7, 2023, along with more than 1,000 education workers. These figures come from Palestinian authorities and have not been independently verified by international organizations. They encompass both civilians and individuals involved in combat, with no official breakdown separating the two categories. Absent students include classmates, friends, and relatives who would have taken the exam.

On June 22, 2026, Raghad Hussein Ashour, a secondary-school student, was killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza City while returning from an exam, according to Palestinian reports and family members. She had grown up without her father and aspired to study medicine. She was the only daughter of her mother. The strike also killed a paramedic and injured four civilians.

Yahya Nasman appeared on the list of successful Tawjihi students with a score of 96.6. He had been killed with family members days earlier. His name remained on the published results.

The author of this account received Tawjihi results in 2023 under different conditions and scored 98. In 2026, her brother Mohammed Ahmed Al-Wawi, born in 2008, received a score of 96.4 in the science track. Results were announced on July 24. Other relatives also received scores, including 99.6 and 98.

The Tawjihi records academic performance on standardized questions. It does not record hours of interrupted study, displacement, loss of family members, or the search for electricity and connectivity. Students who did not pass cannot be assessed by ordinary standards given the conditions.

The 2008 cohort has lived its entire life amid recurring conflict and restrictions. It entered its final school years after the October 2023 escalation. Exams occurred in improvised settings with limited resources. When results were released, the names of those who completed the process appeared alongside students from other regions. Plans for university enrollment remain for those who passed.

Gaza’s 2008 cohort did not select the circumstances of its upbringing or the sequence of military operations and attacks that shaped its education. It completed the Tawjihi regardless.