When 24-year-old Amira Al-Khatib arrived in the Netherlands from Gaza last week to begin her master's degree at Radboud University, the joy of finally reaching safety and the sorrow of leaving home collided.
"I am so grateful to everyone who supported me and yet, leaving Gaza was one of the hardest moments I have ever experienced," she told DW from her new home in the town of Nijmegen.
Al-Khatib graduated with a bachelor's degree in computer systems engineering from Gaza's Al-Azhar University in 2025. "For the past two years, I studied in an environment where internet connectivity could not be taken for granted," she said.
The only place where she could get an internet signal was on the roof of her house. "I completed my graduation project with drones flying overhead, placing my hand over my heart every few minutes, hoping I would survive long enough to finish it," she recalled.
"Engineers who have experienced war understand, perhaps better than anyone else, what our communities actually need," she said. "That's why I chose to continue my education in data science and artificial intelligence. My dream is to help build technological systems that remain reliable even during humanitarian crises and emergencies."
