22 July 2025, 17:00-18:00 BST
Since October 2023, healthcare and education in Gaza have suffered catastrophic damage. Both of the territory’s medical school buildings have been destroyed, while faculty and students have been killed, detained, tortured, and displaced as part of a broader campaign of scholasticide targeting Gaza’s educational and medical infrastructure – including research laboratories, libraries, clinics, and hospitals. According to Healthcare Workers Watch (HWW), more than 70 medical professionals and professors have been killed in the past 50 days alone. Among them were two of Gaza’s most renowned medical practitioners and educators: Dr Marwan Al Sultan (Islamic University of Gaza) and Dr Ahmed Qandil (Al-Azhar University).
In the face of this devastation, Gaza’s medical schools continue to provide their students with education and clinical training. Educators continue to train students in improvised classrooms, while students step into frontline roles, providing care in field hospitals and supporting a collapsing health system.
In the face of the scholasticide, medical education in Gaza has become an act of resistance, sustaining life and knowledge under siege.
This webinar will feature the voices of Gaza’s medical educators and students as they reflect on their experiences of teaching, learning, and serving under scholasticide. It will explore how medical education endures despite the systematic targeting of universities and healthcare facilities, and examine the role of international academic solidarity in defending the right to education for Palestinians. The webinar will also highlight the urgency and significance of academic partnerships with Gaza’s medical schools, providing institutional support for them and their community of medical professionals, educators and students.
Speakers
Dr Mohammed Zughbur, Dean of the Palestine Faculty of Medicine at Al-Azhar University, Gaza.
Dr Emad Shaqoura, Head of Basic Sciences and Director of Online Teaching, Faculty of Medicine, Islamic University of Gaza.
Lina Abu Heen, Medical student, Islamic University of Gaza.
Chair: Dr Jane Crawley (University of Oxford)
This event is part of the Education, Occupation & Liberation series, co-hosted with the University and College Union (UCU). The series brings together Palestinian, UK and international scholars, students and practitioners to explore the challenges facing Palestinian education and its role in building a free and flourishing Palestine.
This event is free to attend, but Fobzu relies on donations from supporters to run programmes like this. If you are able, please consider making a donation to support access to education for Palestinians.