GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — In February, Suleiman al-Dali, a student, lost a scholarship to study for a bachelor’s degree in engineering in Turkey after the Interior Ministry in the West Bank stopped issuing passports to residents of the Gaza Strip that month. Dali, who has a diploma in interior design from the University College of Applied Sciences in Gaza, had waited a long time and endured various hardships before being accepted into the Turkish program after fulfilling all the requirements.
He told Al-Monitor, “After I was accepted, I began the official procedures to finalize my papers and prepare for my travel to Turkey. More than three months ago, I applied to the Interior Ministry in Ramallah, through its services office in Gaza, to renew my passport, which was set to expire in a few months. However, the scholarship’s deadline passed [without my traveling to Turkey] because the passport was not renewed, under the pretext that they didn’t have passport booklets [in Gaza]. I, therefore, lost the scholarship, which for me was like a dream that suddenly turned into a mirage.”