Students who survived the Gaza genocide and still earned top scores in national high school exams
alestinian students and their families celebrate the announcement of the Tawjihi (high school) examination results, Khan Younis, 24 July 2026
Tareq S. Hajjaj reports in Mondoweiss on 28 July 2026:
Last week, Gaza’s streets filled with celebrations, an uncommon sight amid the ongoing genocide.
Families gathered, sweets were distributed, and celebratory gunfire rang out, while congratulations were offered to young people across the Strip. It is one of Gaza’s longstanding social traditions: before the war, families marked this occasion with banquets, large gatherings, and fireworks that filled the sky from early morning until late at night. For some families, the festivities would continue into the following day.
This year, amid tents and displacement camps, the celebrations looked different, but they returned all the same.
The celebrations marked the results of Palestine’s General Secondary Education Certificate Examination, known as the “Tawjihi,” which were announced on Friday, June 24. It was the first time since 2023, following the outbreak of the genocide, that students in Gaza sat for the exams simultaneously with their peers in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education, this year’s examination recorded the highest pass rate in the past three years, reaching 74%. Amjad Barham, the education minister, announced that 36,900 students from the Gaza Strip sat for the exams this year, noting that over 1,100 students who were expected to take the examinations were killed during the war.
All the examinations were conducted electronically, since nearly all educational institutions where the exams used to be held before the war have since been leveled, alongside the over 80% of buildings that have been destroyed or damaged across the Strip. Gathering in coffee shops and public spaces with internet access, Tawjihi students took their exams on phones, laptops, and tablets, itself an achievement given the scarcity of solar-powered charging ports in Gaza.
Dana Mohammed Abu Dalfa, a Palestinian high school student, reviews her lessons using the light of a mobile phone inside a displacement tent in the Gaza Strip, 20 June 2026
Ranked second nationwide, Ayham Faris, a student from Khan Younis, celebrated inside the modest tent where he had spent the academic year. Having achieved a score of 99.7% in the scientific stream, he dedicated his success to the souls of the Palestinian martyrs and to Palestinian prisoners.
“This success did not come easily,” Faris told Mondoweiss. “It came after immense suffering, including our displacement, the destruction of our home in Khan Younis, and life inside a tent that was unfit not only for studying but even for living. We also endured famine during this year. We went to sleep hungry and woke up hungry. But nothing could deter us from excelling and reaching our dreams.”
Faris explains that at the beginning of the academic year, his family was still struggling through repeated displacement. “I lost all motivation at the beginning of the year,” he said. “There was simply no energy left to study, especially while living in a tent. I had no desk, no lighting, and none of the essentials needed for education.”