In a modest makeshift living space in besieged Gaza, Malak Ashour sat anxiously with her phone in hand, surrounded by family members awaiting her high school exam results. Moments later, cheers erupted as her score appeared: 93 percent.
“We came to celebrate your success and sing for you,” her relatives chanted, echoing a traditional Palestinian song performed after the announcement of Tawjihi results.
For Malak, the achievement felt almost unimaginable. Like nearly 30,000 Tawjihi students in Gaza, she endured two years of relentless Israeli bombardment, severe restrictions on aid, repeated displacement, and life in overcrowded tents without electricity, nutritious food, or a proper space to study.
She was displaced at least eight times from her home in Tel al-Hawa, Gaza City, eventually living in a tent in southern Gaza for two consecutive years.
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“These two years were filled with despair, destruction, hunger, and constant bombing. I will never forget what we went through,” she told Quds News Network (QNN).
“There were no books, no energy to study. We lived in constant fear, fear of death, of losing our homes again, of an uncertain future, and of all our efforts being in vain.”
After a ceasefire was declared on October 10, her family returned to find their home destroyed, bombed at least twice. Malak’s celebration unfolded amid the rubble and tightly packed tents.
On Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025, the Palestinian Ministry of Education in Gaza announced that approximately 30,000 students had completed the secondary education certificate exam (Tawjihi). This marks the second release of Tawjihi results since the Israeli genocide began on October 7, 2023.
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Despite unimaginable hardship, sleepless nights, continuous airstrikes, and suffocating aid blockades, many students achieved remarkable scores.
Yet some of Gaza’s brightest students never lived to witness their results.
Duha Nazmi Abu Dalal, from the Nuseirat refugee camp, scored 96.7 percent. She was killed along with 18 members of her family in late October after Israel violated a ceasefire agreement.
The daughter of Palestinian journalist Hussam al-Masri, who was killed in an Israeli strike on Nasser Hospital on August 25, also passed with distinction, earning 92.3 percent.
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For Nour Eyad, her achievement came after months of mourning the death of her younger brother in an Israeli attack.
“I thank God for giving me the strength to study and obtain a high score,” she told QNN. “I studied among rubble, in tents, with no food and no internet. It was heartbreaking for months, and my brother’s killing made everything harder. I dedicate this success to his soul.”
She recalled wishing for a piece of chocolate or chicken during long, exhausting nights of studying while bombs thundered overhead.
“There were many challenges, but we overcame them,” she said.
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Another high-achieving student, Aya Hneif, who scored 95.3 percent, said her success felt bittersweet.
“Rafah is still under Israeli control. We don’t know anything about our home. The city is completely destroyed. My cousin was killed in an Israeli strike while sitting on her bed, posing no threat to anyone. We are still trying to recover,” she told QNN.[]
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
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