Gaza teen Saba Rabah tops science exams amid war‑torn hardship

Eighteen‑year‑old Saba Rabah of central Gaza achieved a 99.9 % score, ranking first nationwide in the science stream of the Palestinian Tawjihi secondary‑school exams. Her success came after multiple displacements, the destruction of her family home, and the death of her father, a UNRWA teacher, in an Israeli airstrike in June 2024. Rabah celebrated the result in Al‑Maghazi refugee camp, where families gathered despite ongoing shelling and the conversion of school buildings into shelters.

In a separate story, 18‑year‑old Shireen Abulqas, who lost 17 family members and both legs in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City’s al‑Tuffah neighbourhood, also passed her final exams. While recovering in hospital, she vowed to pursue higher education, hoping to obtain prosthetic limbs and attend university abroad. Both accounts highlight the resilience of Gaza’s students as the war has damaged most schools, displaced tens of thousands of pupils and forced learning to continue in temporary shelters.