A Life-Changing Phone Call
When the phone rang on July 5, 2025, Nour Elassy stood before her mother in their apartment in central Gaza City. Before she even answered, she saw the recognition in her mother's eyes. Her mother collapsed. The French consulate was calling to inform the 23-year-old literature student that Israel had approved her evacuation from Gaza. She had five days to leave. She might never see her family again.
Speaking from a Parisian café terrace a year later, Elassy recalled the months of uncertainty that preceded that moment. Her journey to France began with poetry—verses she wrote and recited in English and French on TikTok and Instagram. In each video, filmed identically with her facing the camera and a hands-free microphone close to her lips, she shared her words:
Even our dreams/ once fierce and bright/ swallowed by despair.
From Gaza to Paris Through Poetry
Elassy had been studying French and English literature at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, an institution established in 1991 by presidential decree of Yasser Arafat. Before the current conflict, the university served approximately 16,000 undergraduate students across twelve faculties. Her videos caught attention, eventually leading to her acceptance into the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) exiled students program in Paris.
The EHESS program, launched in November 2015, was created specifically to facilitate admission for students forced to abandon their studies due to persecution, discrimination, catastrophe, or armed conflict in their countries of origin. The program does not require students to hold refugee status in France and is also open to asylum seekers, making it accessible to those in urgent need of protection.
Part of a Broader Humanitarian Effort
Elassy's evacuation was part of a broader French humanitarian effort. According to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, France evacuated 292 Palestinians from Gaza during 2025. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot stated in late July 2025 that France had evacuated hundreds of people from Gaza since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel.
Her departure came at a critical moment. Israel had seized control of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt in May 2024, and the crossing remained largely closed, severely limiting exit routes from the enclave. The logistical challenges of leaving Gaza made each approved evacuation particularly significant.
A Timely Escape
Elassy's escape proved timely in another sense. Just weeks after her July departure, France suspended all evacuations from Gaza on August 1, 2025, following a controversy involving a different Palestinian student who had been admitted to Sciences Po Lille. The suspension, announced by Foreign Minister Barrot, halted a program that had offered a lifeline to hundreds.
The decision to leave carried profound emotional weight. Elassy knew she was departing a place where violence had claimed thousands of lives. A February 2026 study published in The Lancet Global Health estimated that violent deaths in Gaza between October 7, 2023 and January 5, 2025 totaled 75,200, representing approximately 3.4 percent of Gaza's pre-conflict population.
Living with Survivor's Guilt
Now in Paris, Elassy lives with what she describes as guilt—the burden of safety while loved ones remain in danger. Her words, once composed as poetry amid destruction, now carry the weight of survival and separation. The young woman who shared verses about dreams swallowed by despair must now reckon with the reality of being among the fortunate few who escaped, while most remained behind.
