Brief
Gaza schoolgirls reunite in photo as war‑scarred lives unfold
A new photograph captures former Gaza schoolgirls years after a 2023 class picture, highlighting loss, displacement and lingering hopes.
By Felo News Desk · Published
A new photograph taken by former student Sara Rayan shows many of the girls who posed for a class picture at Muscat Secondary School for Girls in Nuseirat, Gaza, in June 2023. The image, published by Al Jazeera, juxtaposes the original group with a handful of survivors gathered three years later.
In the 2023 picture, the girls stand with their teacher, Maha Taha, and include Dima Sultan, Lama Al‑Hajj, Afnan Al‑Dirawi, Lama Al‑Najjar, Malak Al‑Hajj, Lina Al‑Hour, Sara Hamdan, Fatima Hamdan, Iman Khalil, Aya Adnan, Yasmin Abu Zaid, Lina Yunis Abd al‑Qader, Israa Abu Qamar and Ghaida Zaqout. Lina Al‑Hour, sixth from the left, was killed in an Israeli air strike in November 2023. Four of the girls have since left Gaza, while others could not be reached or declined to join the reunion.
The reunion focuses on Aya Adnan, who appears in the new photo standing tall with a dimpled chin and her hijab pulled back. In 2023 she dreamed of studying medicine, hoping to become a neurosurgeon. After a severe headache and dizziness in 11th grade, scans revealed spinal‑cord pressure from vertebrae, reinforcing her resolve. She earned 96 percent on her final school results, but her family could not afford medical school fees. Her father worked as a UNRWA social‑worker, and she turned to her older brother Yasser, a lawyer with a family of his own, for support.
“I used to always tell him, ‘You’re a second father to me,’ because he was so kind to me, just like my father,” Aya told Al Jazeera. Yasser, seventeen years older, had a practice, a wife and three children, and helped support their parents while hoping to teach law at university.
The photograph also serves as a reminder of the broader education crisis in Gaza, where private school fees have surged and many families rely on makeshift classrooms, a situation previously covered by Felo News in its September 14 article on private schools in Gaza.
Key facts
- The reunion photo was taken by former student Sara Rayan. (aljazeera.com)
- Lina Al‑Hour was killed in an Israeli air strike in November 2023. (aljazeera.com)
- Aya Adnan dreamed of becoming a neurosurgeon but faced financial barriers. (aljazeera.com)
- Aya’s brother Yasser is a lawyer who supports the family. (aljazeera.com)
- Four of the original classmates have left Gaza; others were unreachable or declined to join. (aljazeera.com)
Sources
- [1] aljazeera.com — originally reported as “The girls in the Gaza school photograph”
