Gaza schoolgirls reunite after war, recalling shattered futures and lost classmates

Maha Taha, a veteran mathematics teacher in Nuseirat, displayed a June 2023 photograph of fifteen teenage girls from Muscat Secondary School. The girls, then 17-18, had just finished mock exams and dreamed of university. Three years later, a small group reconvened in the same schoolyard, now scarred by artillery holes and soot-stained walls that still bear children's drawings.

One of the original classmates, Lina al-Hour, was killed in an Israeli air strike on November 17, 2023. Other former students have left Gaza or are displaced, while the school continues to serve as a shelter for families. The reunion underscored the disruption of their education, the loss of peers, and the lingering hope to rebuild their futures.