Gaza student uses her passport to draw out her travel plans

Twenty-year-old Nour Al-Ramlawi was due to leave Gaza and head to university abroad when Israel launched its devastating war on Gaza. Nour had received her visa and was due to travel through the Rafah Crossing in October 2023, but her dreams were shattered after Israeli occupation authorities closed the crossing and later took over the area and raised the Israeli flag over it.

Nour, whose family has been displaced from northern Gaza to Al-Mawasi in the south of the Strip, dreamt of studying engineering and travelling around Europe and the Muslim world to explore countries she had never visited.

Twenty-year-old Palestinian Nur Al Rimlawi, who paints the countries she wants to visit on her now-invalid passport issued by the Palestinian authorities, shows a page where she drew Jordan as Israeli airstrikes continue in Khan Yunis, Gaza on September 10, 2024. [Doaa Albaz – Anadolu Agency]

Twenty-year-old Palestinian Nur Al Rimlawi, who paints the countries she wants to visit on her now-invalid passport issued by the Palestinian authorities, shows a page where she drew Jordan as Israeli airstrikes continue in Khan Yunis, Gaza on September 10, 2024. [Doaa Albaz – Anadolu Agency]

Twenty-year-old Palestinian Nur Al Rimlawi, who paints the countries she wants to visit on her now-invalid passport issued by the Palestinian authorities, shows a page where she drew Jordan as Israeli airstrikes continue in Khan Yunis, Gaza on September 10, 2024. [Doaa Albaz – Anadolu Agency]

Now her dream has been shattered, she has taken to drawing the sites she once hoped to see on the empty pages of her passport in the place of the visas and entry stamps that were due to adorn her travel document.

The young lady had hoped to visit the UK, Italy, Spain, Malaysia and Turkiye, among other countries and depicted each country’s landmarks in her passport.

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