GAZA: Samar Aita lived through three wars in the Gaza Strip before moving to Ukraine four years ago, never imagining her computer engineering studies would be interrupted by a conflict far from home.
The 21-year-old Palestinian woman is now back with her family in Rafah, a town in southern Gaza, after fleeing Kharkiv, a city in northeastern Ukraine.
“I never expected I would go from one war into another, from bombardment to bombardment, from displacement to displacement and from refuge to refuge,” Aita said.
“Ukraine was a very calm and safe place therefore, I never expected I would be forced to escape or that my life would be in danger.”
In 2014, Aita lost several relatives when Israel bombed her neighborhood during a 50-day war with Gaza militants, scenes she and her mother recalled with the first news of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Knowing your daughter is alone and you don’t know how dangerous it is there, made me tense and I couldn’t sleep for a week,” said Aita’s mother Shadia.
Israel and Gaza’s armed groups, led by the enclave’s Islamist Hamas rulers, have fought four wars since 2008, including one last May, and the area remains volatile.
Aita said her life had been in danger several times during her escape from Ukraine, including her exit from Kharkiv by train when it was forced to abruptly change tracks during a bombing, turning a 12-hour trip into a 36-hour ordeal.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said it oversaw the evacuation of 1,300 Palestinians, including 600 students, from Ukraine since the start of the invasion.
Most studied medicine, said Ahmed Al-Deek, an adviser to the Palestinian foreign minister. He said the Palestinian Authority would help those who fled Ukraine to study in universities in the West Bank and Gaza instead.
In Gaza’s Nusseirat refugee camp, Rabeea Abu Rabeea said his journey from Ukraine took 11 days. In his fourth year at the Poltava State Medical University, he had aimed to become a dentist like his father.
“I see a dead-end before my eyes, and my future is uncertain,” Abu Rabeea said, adding that around 200 other students from Gaza had been evacuated but many preferred to stay in other European countries.
From Gaza to Ukraine and back: war haunts Palestinian students
https://arab.news/5856p
From Gaza to Ukraine and back: war haunts Palestinian students
Israel warns Lebanon of severe response if Hezbollah joins US-Iran conflict
- Israel dealt heavy blows to the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah during a war in 2024
GENEVA/BEIRUT: Israel has sent an indirect message to Lebanon that it would strike Lebanon hard, targeting civilian infrastructure including the airport, in the event that Hezbollah gets involved in any US-Iran war, two senior Lebanese officials said on Tuesday.
The office of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Lebanese presidency did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Iran and the US will hold a third round of nuclear talks on Thursday in Geneva, Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said on Sunday, amid growing concerns about the risk of military conflict between the adversaries.
Israel dealt heavy blows to the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah during a war in 2024, killing its leader Hassan Nasrallah along with thousands of its fighters and destroying much of its arsenal.
Shiite Muslim Hezbollah was established by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in 1982.
Hezbollah’s new leader
Naim Qassem
said in a televised address last month that the group was “not neutral” in the standoff between Washington and Tehran, and that it was “targeted by the potential aggression.”
“We are determined to defend ourselves. We will choose in due course how to act, whether to intervene or not,” Qassem said.
The U.S
. State Department
is pulling out non-essential government personnel and their eligible family members from the US embassy in Beirut, a senior State Department official said on Monday. (
