Gaza Herald — On the grounds of the devastated Islamic University of Gaza, 700 nursing students gathered in white coats this week to take their professional oath, transforming an academic ceremony into a powerful declaration that Gaza’s next generation of healthcare workers refuses to surrender its future.
The second- and third-year students gathered on September 22 for a ceremony organised by the university’s Nursing College and named the “Prince Abdelkader Al-Jazairi Cohort – Class of Hope and Mercy.” The event was held under the sponsorship of Algeria’s Al-Baraka Association.
Against the backdrop of a university and healthcare system devastated by years of Israeli attacks, the ceremony carried significance far beyond an ordinary academic milestone. The students are preparing for a profession that has become central to Gaza’s struggle for survival, where medical workers have been forced to treat mass casualties and severe trauma under extraordinary pressure and shortages.
Amid Gaza’s Ruins, 700 Nursing Students Take Oath of Hope
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— Gaza Herald (@Gaza_Herald) September 23, 2026
White Coats Amid the Rubble
Addressing the students, Nursing College Dean Dr. Abdul Karim Radwan described them as a generation that had endured the horrors of war while refusing to abandon education.
Radwan told the students that the white coat should represent more than professional clothing. It was, he said, a symbol of hope and responsibility towards people whose bodies and lives have been devastated by war.
Hatem Al-Yazji, deputy head of Algeria’s Al-Baraka Association, said supporting Palestinian universities was not something that could wait until after the crisis. Education, he said, was essential to preserving Palestinian identity and preparing a generation capable of rebuilding what had been destroyed.
From Grief to the Classroom
One of the ceremony’s most powerful moments came from a Nursing College graduate whose own journey reflected the extraordinary conditions under which Palestinians in Gaza have pursued their education.
The graduate recounted how her home was bombed, leaving her seriously wounded and killing her children. Despite her injuries and devastating loss, she continued her studies until graduation and was later appointed as a teaching assistant at the university’s Nursing College.
Her story gave the ceremony’s white coats a deeper meaning. In Gaza, nursing students are not learning about trauma from textbooks alone. Their education is unfolding within a society where hospitals, universities and families have all endured enormous destruction and loss.
Nursing as an Act of Survival
The gathering also highlighted the importance of preserving Gaza’s educational and medical institutions. The Islamic University continues to operate despite the destruction and disruption of recent years, while its Nursing College trains students in fields essential to rebuilding Palestinian healthcare.
For Gaza, maintaining nursing education is therefore about more than preserving a university programme. Every student who completes their training represents additional medical capacity for a population facing enormous healthcare and rehabilitation needs.
The image of 700 Palestinian students standing together in white coats amid the devastation captures that determination. Their oath cannot rebuild Gaza’s hospitals or erase the losses they have endured, but it demonstrates that destruction has not succeeded in ending Palestinian education or the preparation of those who will care for the next generation.
In Gaza, the white coat has become more than a professional uniform. Amid destroyed universities and a devastated healthcare system, it represents care, endurance and a refusal to allow destruction to dictate the future.
