A new Palestinian student has arrived in Pisa. Engy Abdelal is 28 years old and comes from Gaza, where for more than a year she reported on the war and daily life through a series of articles published in L’Espresso. After a process lasting eleven months, Engy was able to leave the Gaza Strip and reach Italy thanks to a mobilisation involving the weekly magazine’s editorial staff and several people who worked to make her departure possible. She ultimately found an opportunity to continue her education at the University of Pisa. Engy will enrol in the University’s Master’s Degree Programme in Peace Studies, where she will be able to begin a new chapter in her personal and academic journey.
The story of Engy’s journey to Pisa is closely linked to Federica Bianchi, a journalist on the editorial staff of L’Espresso, with whom the young Palestinian woman came into contact while she was still in Gaza. Bianchi helped bring Engy’s voice to the pages of the weekly magazine, where for more than a year she described the war and daily life in the Strip from a direct and personal perspective. But Bianchi’s commitment went beyond her journalistic work: it was she who began searching for a concrete way for Engy to leave Gaza and continue her journey in Italy. After months of searching, a network of contacts and solidarity eventually led to the University of Pisa’s willingness to welcome her and offer her the opportunity to resume her studies.
“My deepest thanks go to Giovanni Federico Gronchi, Vice-Rector for International Cooperation at the University of Pisa, who responded to the appeal and gave a young woman the opportunity to plan her future,” Bianchi wrote in L’Espresso on 18 September.
Engy’s arrival is part of the University of Pisa’s ongoing commitment, which dates back to 2024, to supporting the right to education of Palestinian students and, more broadly, young people from conflict-affected areas. With her arrival, the number of Palestinian students welcomed by the University over the past year has risen to six. At the end of 2025, the University welcomed Aya, Ahmed, Muawiya, Mohammed and Naba, who arrived in Pisa through various international cooperation initiatives and university corridors promoted or supported by the University, including the agreement with the Italian Red Cross and the IUPALS – Italian Universities for Palestinian Students project.
“Engy’s arrival is another tangible result of the University of Pisa’s commitment to turning solidarity with Palestinian students into concrete opportunities to study and build a future,” said Giovanni Federico Gronchi, Vice-Rector for Cooperation and International Relations. “In this case, it is particularly significant that the coming together of individuals, civil society, the media and the university made it possible to create a pathway that had seemed extremely difficult. Our task now is to support Engy as she becomes part of the university community and provide her with the conditions she needs to continue her studies and freely pursue her own personal and professional goals. I would like to thank all the staff of the International Relations Office, who have worked with great dedication over recent months to make the arrival of Engy and the other Palestinian students possible, following every stage of what are often long and complex processes with care and determination.”
For Engy, Pisa thus marks the beginning of a new chapter. During the months she spent in Gaza, she continued writing even under the most difficult conditions, turning her own experience into a first-person account of life in the Strip. Her voice can now continue to be heard from Italy as she begins her new journey at the University of Pisa.
Read Engy Abdelal’s article, “I study peace because I know its absence”
