From ruins to resilience: Gazan medical students triumph against adversity in SA

Twenty-seven final-year medical students from Al-Azhar University and Islamic University in Gaza were displaced from their universities after they were destroyed by Israeli missiles. But the students turned tragedy to triumph and have managed to complete their studies through the University of Cape Town and University of the Witswatersand.

Source: Supplied. Twenty-seven students from Gaza bid farewell to South Africa on the steps at UCT. They left Gaza after their universities were destroyed during the war, and studied at UCT and Wits.

The students arrived in South Africa in 2024 to complete their medical studies in order to graduate. Most of the students managed to escape to Egypt through the Rafa border to get to South Africa. Their faculty deans had made arrangements with universities in South Africa to help the students complete their studies.

On 3 May 2025, Gift of the Givers, a non-profit organisation, bade farewell to the students at UCT after a dinner was held to celebrate their milestone after facing hardship and defying the odds by completing their studies despite being away from their families in Gaza for months.

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