Displaced children from the Gaza Strip, stand in line as they attend a Palestinian school in the Egyptian city of El-Arish, near the border with the Gaza Strip, on October 1, 2026. (Photo by AMR AHMED / AFP)
In Egypt's Sinai, Gazan builds school for displaced children
Note: AI technology was used to generate this article’s audio.
- Displaced teacher Hadeel Zourob established El-Arish's only Palestinian school to provide free education to war-displaced Gaza children.
- Supported by the Misr El Kheir Foundation for rent and supplies, enrollment rapidly expanded from a small group to nearly 400 students.
- Displaced Gaza teachers use the Palestinian curriculum to provide educational continuity, trauma support, and cultural preservation.
In the coastal city of El-Arish in Egypt's North Sinai, Palestinian teacher Hadeel Zourob watches dozens of displaced Gazan children file into the region's only Palestinian school, a facility she built after war forced them from their homes, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Located 44 kilometres (27 miles) from the Gaza border, El-Arish has become a haven for hundreds of uprooted Palestinian families, as well as a primary hub for international aid convoys and medical evacuations.
"They fled to Egypt and found sits here without schools or education," Zourob, who is in her thirties, told AFP. "So I decided to establish an educational centre for them."
Zourob fled Gaza with her family six months after the 'Israeli' genocide in October 2023.
Joining relatives already in El-Arish, Zourob partnered with fellow displaced Palestinian teachers to launch lessons for a small group of children in a rented facility.
400 students supported
What began as an informal tutoring initiative has expanded into a full-scale, free educational facility serving nearly 400 students aged six to 18, up from 150 during its first year, according to AFP.
To accommodate the growing student body, school supplies and building rent are funded with assistance from the Misr El Kheir Foundation, one of Egypt's largest charitable organizations.
The school operates in a historically remote and economically marginalized region that has experienced years of Egyptian military operations against Islamist militants following the country's 2011 uprising.
During morning assemblies in the school's courtyard, students wearing black-and-white keffiyeh and traditional embroidered dresses wave Palestinian flags and recite assembly pledges before filing into classrooms.
Inside, teachers distribute Palestinian curriculum textbooks -many brought directly from Gaza- where pupils work through mathematics exercises, sketch seaside scenes, and participate in group singing.
Schooling offers psychological support
According to the UN children's agency (UNICEF), more than 14,000 school-age Palestinian children have been displaced to Egypt since the war began.
Human Rights Watch and local aid workers note that refugee families face significant barriers accessing formal education in Egypt, including residency requirements, registration hurdles, financial constraints regarding electronic devices for online learning, and rising costs of living.
Concurrently, nearly three years of conflict have left Gaza's educational infrastructure in ruins, with UN agencies estimating that 98 percent of schools are damaged or destroyed, leaving roughly 658,000 school-age children at risk of becoming a "lost generation."
For the children in El-Arish—many of whom arrived for medical treatment or post-surgery rehabilitation following war injuries—the facility provides essential stability.
"We hope they can achieve their dreams despite the difficult and tragic conditions we are living through outside Gaza," Palestinian mother Ons Shehta told AFP.
Teacher Hamied Abu Daher emphasized to AFP that the team aims to restore normalcy so that when students eventually return to Gaza, "the school atmosphere won't feel strange to them".
