Coverage spread: 2 sources — 1 left · 1 international
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Two separate accounts of Gaza’s ongoing crisis
Two unrelated reports highlight different dimensions of the fallout from Israel’s war in Gaza, which began after October 7, 2023: one detailing the devastation of higher education inside the territory, the other examining how the UK Home Office is preventing Palestinian families from reuniting with relatives abroad despite a nominal ceasefire that began in October 2025.
Islamic University of Gaza: rebuilding from ruins
Al Jazeera reports on efforts by students and staff to revive the Islamic University of Gaza, once one of the Palestinian enclave’s leading public universities, particularly known for practical training in medicine, health sciences and engineering. The war, which the outlet describes using the term “genocidal,” destroyed much of the university’s infrastructure. According to figures cited in the article, 19 educational buildings were destroyed, along with roughly 500 classrooms, 200 scientific laboratories and 75 computer laboratories. The central library reportedly lost more than 240,000 books, journals, references and academic theses.
Yassin al-Nounou, the university’s laboratory coordinator, noted that new medical and health-science equipment — including anatomy models and educational skeletons meant to strengthen practical training — had arrived only days before the war began, before much of it was lost to bombing. Abdulraouf Ali al-Manama, dean of the health sciences faculty, called the past three years “one of the greatest disasters in the university’s history,” saying bombing destroyed academic buildings, laboratories, libraries and training clinics, and wiped out decades of accumulated scientific devices, materials and resources, leaving what he called “the ruins of a destroyed university.”
The article also notes that mass displacement pushed many Gazans to convert university buildings and facilities into temporary shelters, compounding a shortage of usable classrooms. Repeated electricity and internet outages, psychological strain on students and staff, and physical difficulty simply reaching campus or training sites amid the devastated landscape are described as ongoing obstacles. The piece emphasizes that even after the October 2025 ceasefire — which it says has been “repeatedly violated by Israel” — rebuilding education from the rubble remains a monumental challenge.
UK family reunion applications stalled
The Guardian reports on a separate issue: the UK Home Office is blocking the evacuation of dozens of women and children from Gaza who are seeking to reunite with relatives already granted refuge in Britain, even though the Foreign Office says it is ready to help get them out. The Home Office suspended refugee family reunion applications last September and promised stricter rules “in the spring,” but no such rules have been announced and the suspension remains in place, leaving pre-suspension applicants in limbo.
Families able to leave Gaza are currently evacuated via Jordan, but the Guardian says the Home Office is refusing to issue the “onward travel assurance” needed to bring them onward to the UK, and is deploying legal challenges — sometimes involving multiple senior barristers per case — to block entry. The Home Office maintains it requires biometrics before travel, despite the visa application centre in Gaza having been closed since October 2023. The article notes that other European countries, including Belgium, France, Italy and Ireland, are facilitating similar evacuations, and that the Foreign Office itself has said it is willing to do so.
Lawyers for affected families say the Home Office is treating Palestinians more harshly than refugees from other conflict zones, in some instances labeling family members — including young children — a security risk because they come from “a territory where terrorists operate,” despite some UK-based relatives having been granted asylum specifically because they were persecuted by Hamas. The report highlights the case of PhD student Bassem Abudagga, whose family’s case was told they must wait until December for a decision, and a July 15, 2026 Home Office response stating that dangerous, insanitary and bombed conditions in Gaza alone do not meet the threshold of “compelling circumstances” under current guidance. Another unnamed Palestinian refugee described being separated from his wife, three children aged 9, 12 and 14, and a 17-year-old orphaned nephew the family adopted, saying he worries constantly about their safety.
How the coverage differs, and why it matters
The two outlets address distinct aspects of Gaza’s post-war reality rather than overlapping directly. Al Jazeera’s piece is focused on institutional and infrastructural destruction and the resilience of students and academics trying to restore higher education, using strong language (“genocidal war”) and citing university officials directly. The Guardian’s investigation is a policy-accountability story centered on UK bureaucracy, immigration law and family separation, drawing on lawyers, leaked correspondence and personal testimony from affected families rather than academic sources.
Together, the two accounts illustrate how the war’s consequences extend beyond immediate casualties and physical destruction to long-term institutional collapse and bureaucratic obstacles abroad that keep displaced families divided even as ceasefire terms nominally allow movement. Neither article offers a resolution: the university’s rebuilding remains an open-ended struggle, and the Home Office has not said when or whether it will lift the suspension or reverse its stance on family reunion cases.
Sources
Featured photo: Belal2795 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)