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Palestinian triplets to split

July 13, 2016 at 11:58 am

Palestinian triplets Israa, Alaa and Doha Othman are parting ways after 18 years of sharing everything together.

The teens from the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarem have just graduated from high school and are enrolling in different courses at university.

“It is a partial separation, but it still has a difficult impact on us. We are joining different majors during our university study. For the first time, we will not be sitting in the same classroom,” Doha said.

Alaa said: “We used to go to school together, go back home together, study together, do homework together and even sit exams together and almost get the same exam results.”

In their finals the three girls did just that with Doha attaining a 94.8 per cent average, Alaa getting 95.1 per cent and Israa being awarded 96.8 per cent.

Difficult life

“I am very happy with the success of my daughters,” the triplet’s father, Othman, said, “but the big problem is that all of them are going to university together and I cannot afford the fees for all of them.”

The father, who holds a BA in computer sciences but works as a taxi driver, said he paid for his other two children to go to university but they did not study simultaneously.

He called on the Palestinian Ministry of Education to help him cover his daughters’ fees to allow them to pursue their careers.

“Education is sacred,” he said, “and they must go to university.”