When on July 29, the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education announced the results of the tawjihi high school general matriculation exam, Sara wept. The 18-year-old saw on social media the joyous celebrations of other students in the occupied West Bank who were revelling in their achievements.

“I was supposed to be happy at this time, celebrating the completion of my high school,” she told me with tearful eyes when I visited her in her family tent in Gaza. “I dreamed of being among the top students and having interviews to celebrate my success.”

Sara was studying at Zahrat Al-Madain Secondary School in Gaza City and aspired to become a doctor. The matriculation exam, for which she would have studied hard for months, would have allowed her to apply to study in a medical faculty. The score of the exam is the main criterion for admission to Palestinian universities.

Instead, Sara spends her time despairing – her home and dreams of a better future destroyed by Israeli bombardment.

She is one of 39,000 Palestinian students in Gaza who were supposed to take the matriculation exam this year but could not.

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