Surviving War, Pursuing Dreams: Salsabeel’s Story

The voice of hope continues to speak even from places where there seems to be nothing but the silence of death and pain. It reaches straight to the heart, and with sensitivity touches the strings of our soul. It forces us to look reality in the face; it becomes an almost unsettling presence for those who would rather pretend that none of this is truly happening. For everyone else, it remains gentle, almost imperceptible, yet constant. It continues to remind us every day of what is happening to the people of Gaza, while also offering us the possibility of looking to the future with renewed confidence, just as the protagonist of the story we want to share today has done.

Her name is Salsabeel, she is 19 and she is the sister of Amjad Al-Mhalwi, the voice who, over these past months, through a constant exchange of messages with his friend Doug Hostetter, Pax Christi International’s UN Representative, has continued to tell us about the horrific suffering of her family and of the Palestinian people, forced to flee their homes, to try not to die under the bombs, to survive deprivation and oppression.

In these months, Salsabeel has continued her studies to pass her high school exam, despite the genocide unfolding around her, holding onto the hope of becoming a doctor and being able to study abroad. She did not give up even after being wounded in the conflict, nor after losing her father and several of her siblings. She continued to study even at night, taking advantage of the moments when the Internet connection was working, using cardboard or scrap paper to take notes.

Her constant efforts, the achievement of her goal, and the pride of her brother Amjad are the most vivid and genuine symbol of the sumud of an entire people who, despite everything, continue to dream of a different future.

November 13, 2025

Amjad: “Today is a wonderful day! My youngest sister, Salsabeel (19), just learned that she had passed her Baccalaureate exam with a 95.4 % average. She hopes this high score will enable her to study abroad and become a doctor. My siblings and I bought sweets and distributed them to all our friends, relatives and neighbors”.

Doug: “How did she study for the exam? There has been a war, and no school has been able to function in Gaza for the past 2 years. She must be an amazing person! Should we do an article, with pictures, telling the story of her struggle to pass her HS exam”?”

Amjad: “Okay, I hope she can get a scholarship abroad, the Israelis have destroyed all our universities in Gaza, and she wants to become a doctor”.

Doug: “I can’t make any promises, but I’m sure there will be people inspired to try to help make that possible”.

Amjad: “Salsabeel (17) had just begun her senior year in high school in September 2023 and was preparing herself to be among the top students in the Gaza Strip. Her biggest supporter was her older sister Sumaya. When the war broke out in October, the fighting spread to Gaza City where the family lived, and Salsabeel took her schoolbooks and laptop with her as our family moved from place to place and from school to school fleeing Israeli tanks until we settled into a third-floor classroom in the Umar bin Aas School in Gaza City. We were safe there for a few weeks until the school was hit by Israeli bombs and tank shells in November 2023. In that attack many in our family were killed and even more wounded. Salsabeel lost her father and an older brother, an aunt, and her older sister Sumaya who had been her mentor. The other loss in that attack was the family laptop computer, which was shattered by shrapnel. Salsabeel was seriously wounded on her head and chest with additional injuries to her face.

Salsabeel and all her wounded and dead family members were taken to the the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza. When that hospital was besieged by the Israelis, Salsabeel and her other wounded relatives fled to Gaza City that night and the next morning they fled to the European Hospital in Southern Gaza. After a month-and-a-half in the European Hospital, the Israeli military surrounded the European Hospital and forced the evacuation of all staff and patients. Our family fled with her to Rafah where we built a tent for the family. My brother, Abdulkarim, is a nurse and took care of her even though he was also suffering from his own neck wounds. Those were the hardest days for her and for me. As soon as she was well enough, she used every spare moment to study. I would charge her phone every day so she could study on it at night in our tent. I bought her food and things to eat so she would have energy enough to stay up late to read. I would buy her paper, pens, and books. The Ministry of Education in Gaza had no digital classes, so every day I would download lessons and videos from the internet for her to learn from. We would buy used paper, when we could find it in the market, so she could use the back to write on. When there was no used paper, we found cardboard for her to write on.

Salsabeel studies for the exam

After the ceasefire in January 2025, the family returned to our partially destroyed home in Gaza City where we were working to repair our home and prepared a place for Salsabeel to study until the exam was announced. The Gaza Ministry of Education scheduled the online Baccalaureate exam for September 6th for students who would have finisher their high school in the Spring of 2024. Salsabeel was determined to do well on the exam.

Salsabeel cooks at home

On March 18, 2025, before the exam could be administered, the Israelis broke the ceasefire and started bombing Gaza again. We tried to stay at our home, but the Israelis started to systematically destroy Gaza City, block by block. When they got our area, we moved a few blocks away to my Father-in-law’s house; when they came to that area we moved to an abandoned factory. I finally decided it was too dangerous and I need to take my wife and children to central Gaza for safety. But Salsabeel and some of my other siblings said, “Go, you need to protect your children, but we will stay.” If Salsabeel had left, she would have missed the exam which would register as failed. She chose to stay despite the destruction and the bombing of six houses in our area and the killing of our neighbors. She took the exam online on September 6th while at our home. The next day, she, her mother and my siblings fled to our uncle’s house in eastern Gaza City. They were besieged there, and then they escaped to the beach. Their homes were destroyed, but she took the exam!

After the exam students had to link their mobile phone numbers to the exam website. When the Israelis cut the internet, Salsabeel started crying, fearing that she would now lose the results of the Baccalaureate exam. A month later, however, the Ministry of Education told students who had lost their link because the internet was down, that they would be provided with a new link to receive the results. Today, the results were announced. There was great joy, but also great sadness because so many of our family are no longer with us to share our happiness.

Salsabeel’s Baccalaureate certificate

Box “Amjad’s family deaths and injuries”

My eldest brother, Shadi, lost his wife, Zahra, and daughter, Alin. I, Amgad, was previously wounded, and am still suffering the consequences. My two sons, Majd and Ibrahim, were injured as well as my wife, Qamar. My sister, Hussam, was taken by the Israeli military to Al-Khalaba and tortured for 60 days before being released, but she has never recovered from the torture. My brother, Muhammad and his wife, Qamar, were married only 7 days before the October 7 war began. They were both injured in November when the classroom in which we were staying was shelled. Muhammad was lightly wounded, but Qamar was very seriously injured, almost losing her leg and her hand. She was treated in several hospitals in Gaza.

When the Red Cross was able to clear the infection and the maggots, they transferred her to a hospital in Egypt where she is still being treated. My brother, Abdulkarim, was injured in the neck, while my sister, Sumaya, died from her wounds. My brother, Abdullah, was killed by shrapnel while praying. My sister, Salsabeel, was injured in the chest, hands and face. My brother, Ahmed, was injured in his fingers. My mother was injured in the foot, and my father, the head of the family, was killed when the tanks attack the school where we were all staying.