Al Jazeera Traces Fates of 15 Gaza Schoolgirls Photographed Before October 7

In June 2023, fifteen girls in navy school robes crowded around their math teacher in the yard of Muscat Secondary School in Nuseirat, Gaza, for a photograph taken by a classmate named Sara Rayan. They had just finished mock exams. They were 17 and 18, the age of university applications and first jobs imagined. Four months later, Israel's war on Gaza began.

According to Al Jazeera's reporting, one of the fifteen girls in that photograph has since been killed in an Israeli air strike. The outlet's account does not name her or detail the date or location of the strike. Four others have left Gaza entirely. The rest have been displaced within the territory at different points in the war, their schooling interrupted.

The school itself still stands. Al Jazeera reports it was struck by artillery in February 2024 and afterward became a shelter for displaced families. Journalists visiting in late September documented holes from quadcopter gunfire, windows shattered by shelling, and soot stains on classroom walls where families had cooked over open fires. Children sheltering there have drawn kites, flowers, and a Palestinian flag on the walls, signing their names beneath them. A tent at the edge of the schoolyard now serves as a makeshift classroom for younger pupils whose own schools can no longer take them.

Maha Taha, 43, the mathematics teacher in the original photograph, has taught at the school for twenty years. She kept the photo on her phone. When Al Jazeera located three of her former students, Yasmin Abu Zaid, Aya Adnan, and Lina Yunis Abd al-Qader, for a reunion at the school in late September, the reporting describes Aya pulling Yasmin into an embrace.

"I haven't seen you for three years," Aya said. "Where have you been? You never show up."

Aya and Lina still live in the same Nuseirat neighborhood and have stayed in contact throughout the war. Yasmin, displaced early on, had not seen either of them in three years. A fourth girl, Ghaida Zaqout, now lives in Egypt; the group stays in touch through a private WhatsApp chat.

When Taha pulled up the old photograph again, the girls gathered around her and pointed out the tree still standing behind them in the schoolyard, matching it to the image. They began recalling details of the friendships captured in the frame: who lent pens, who explained homework, who talked through lessons. Al Jazeera's account notes that the girl who was killed, and the specific fates of the eleven others not reached for interviews, remain undetailed in the reporting published so far.