As students across the UK celebrated securing their university places, Mahmoud received the news he had been waiting for while trying to sleep in a shelter in central Gaza.
The 27-year-old doctor, who holds a prestigious scholarship to study for a masters in global health policy at the London School of Economics, had just finished a night shift treating trauma patients at a field hospital. Rather than awaiting exam results, he was anxious to learn whether he would be able to leave Gaza to begin his course.
"I was highly emotional and so happy to be awarded the scholarship," Mahmoud tells BBC News. "It gave me the energy to keep working. But most of the time, I avoided talking about it, because of the indefinite uncertainty."
Mahmoud is one of nine students in Gaza who received emails this week from the UK government informing them that it was working to facilitate their evacuation. If successful, they would be the first to leave the Strip for study in the UK since the war began.
The development followed months of campaigning by politicians, academics, and others on behalf of more than 80 Palestinian students who have offers from UK universities this year, including around 50 with fully funded scholarships.
