RAMALLAH — Mohammed al-Sabakhi, a resident of Nuseirat, is eager to start his new job in Kuwait after passing various assessments and interviews with a Kuwaiti Ministry of Education delegation that visited Gaza Aug. 6-14 on a mission to find teachers to work in Kuwaiti schools. Sabakhi is one of 158 teachers — 102 from Gaza and 56 from the West Bank — who signed contracts with the Kuwaitis.

Sabakhi had applied last year to teach math in Kuwait, but Israeli permit restrictions had prevented the delegation of Kuwaiti teachers and supervisors from entering Gaza. Sabakhi sees his new job as a turning point in his professional and personal life. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for coping with the circumstances in the Gaza Strip,” he told Al-Monitor.

Sabakhi graduated in 2012 from the Islamic University in Gaza with a degree in mathematics and then taught for two years under temporary contracts with the Palestinian Ministry of Education. After four years of unemployment, the opportunity to teach in Kuwait is his chance to escape the 11-year blockade and lack of prospects in Gaza, where he has been responsible for supporting his wife, two sons, his mother and brother.

This is the second consecutive year that Kuwait has recruited Palestinian teachers from Gaza and the West Bank following a 27-year standoff. For almost three decades, Kuwait prevented Palestinians from working there, after the Palestine Liberation Organization sided with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein when he invaded Kuwait in August 1990.