Israel-Hamas War and its Impact on the Scientific Community

The war between Israel and Hamas is causing unprecedented trauma to life. However, not only is it giving humanity unrepairable scars, but is also attacking the scientific community to a great extent across the globe.

On the attack on October 7 in Israel by Hamas, universities are mourning the great loss of scientists. The Gaza Strip is ruled by the terrorist organization, Hamas. Academic laboratories are getting empty due to foreign graduate students coming back. The President of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI) says that they are unable to maintain complete research facilities. Researchers in the Gaza Strip are of the view that a majority of the Palestinian enclave's scientific institutions have actually been damaged due to the air attacks by Israel. It is getting quite difficult for scientists to look for safe havens. President of Palestine Academy for Science and Technology, Marwan Awartani said that the priority is no more science but actually staying alive.

Moreover, the war has forced research funders to remodel plans. For instance, it has been announced by the European Commission that it would be providing all applicants an added week or even more to finish the requests to various major grant programs. The European commissioner for innovation and research, Iliana Ivanova expresses, “We offer our support to those affected by the recent hostilities.”

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It was on the 8th of October that Israel announced war on Hamas after the group killed 1300 Israelis and more and abducted over 200. As per Palestinian officials, Gaza's death toll stands at 3500.

The Israeli military called up 300,000 reservists and it was after that the universities in Israel postponed the commencement of the fall semester at least till early November.  Many dormitories have been converted into shelters for reservists.

A majority of the 242 international postdoctoral students at the Ben-Gurion University have departed at the insistence of their home countries, as stated by President Daniel Chamovitz. The university is situated at 41 km from the Gaza border. The university stands within the reach of rockets fired by Hamas. Approximately 50 Ben-Gurion students and staff were killed in the Hamas attack. One of these people was Viktoria Gredeskul, a mathematician, and Sergey Gredeskul, a theoretical physicist. Other such people are kept hostage by the Hamas.

The mounting amount of deaths is the reason for which the Chamovitz is developing a mourning protocol. The protocol makes sure that at least one administration member attends every funeral.

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