JERUSALEM — As students across the UK celebrated securing their university places, Mahmoud received the news he had been waiting for while trying to sleep in a shelter in central Gaza.

The 27-year-old doctor, who holds a prestigious scholarship to study for a masters in global health policy at the London School of Economics, had just finished a night shift treating trauma patients at a field hospital. Rather than awaiting exam results, he was anxious to learn whether he would be able to leave Gaza to begin his course.

"I was highly emotional and so happy to be awarded the scholarship," Mahmoud tells BBC News. "It gave me the energy to keep working. But most of the time, I avoided talking about it, because of the indefinite uncertainty."

Mahmoud is one of nine students in Gaza who received emails this week from the UK government informing them that it was working to facilitate their evacuation. If successful, they would be the first to leave the Strip for study in the UK since the war began.

The development followed months of campaigning by politicians, academics, and others on behalf of more than 80 Palestinian students who have offers from UK universities this year, including around 50 with fully funded scholarships.

Chevening scholars like Mahmoud – recipients of a highly competitive UK Foreign Office grant – have been asked to confirm whether they want to be evacuated and provide their approximate location in Gaza. Other students have so far not been contacted.

"It's a positive step. It has kept me hopeful and optimistic about being evacuated in the coming weeks. However, the message does not give any guarantees," says Mahmoud.

Originally from Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, Mahmoud says he has dreamt of studying in the UK from a young age.

When the war broke out, he volunteered in the plastic and reconstructive surgery unit at the al-Shifa hospital before working on temporary wards across Gaza. He hopes his degree will one day help rebuild the territory's fragile healthcare system.

"Life has never been easy," he says. "Over the past two years I have seen suffering beyond imagination. I've stood beside families in their hardest moments, all while trying to keep hope alive for my own future."

Mahmoud, who lives with his wife, parents, and three sisters, does not know whether any of them will be able to join him if he is evacuated.

He says: "It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but it will be hard to leave my family behind to face constant displacement, famine, chaos, and insecurity."

For Mohammed, 25, another Chevening scholar, the day he received his offer to study for a masters at the University of Glasgow is carved in his memory.

A friend in the UK had passed on a message to his brother, who hurried to a tent where Mohammed was living and urged him to find a place with internet connection to check his emails.

"When I saw the word 'congratulations', I froze for a moment," he recalls. "I felt, just for a moment, that the noise of the bombs and the fear around me faded, and I felt hope again."

But like Mahmoud, he finds the prospect of evacuation heart-wrenching.

"It feels like life after so much darkness. A chance to finally move forward. But that joy is heavy with pain.

"My family is still here, alive, but living under constant danger and leaving them behind will be the most painful decision of my life," he told Radio 4's The World Tonight.

Mohammed, who is due to study epidemiology of infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance, says he feels an obligation to use his education to benefit those he would leave behind.

"This opportunity is not an escape. It is a responsibility to study, to learn and to return stronger for them," Mohammed says.

"What I learn in Glasgow will not stay in lecture halls. It will be carried back to serve people who need it."

Palestinians have largely been unable to leave Gaza without diplomatic assistance since October 2023, when Israel launched a military campaign after Hamas's attack on southern Israel, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities.

More than 62,622 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

Famine was confirmed in Gaza City and surrounding areas by a UN-backed food security body on Friday. The Israeli government has rejected the report.

The Foreign Office has not confirmed how many students will be supported or when evacuations will take place, leaving dozens of Gazan students with other scholarships in limbo.

"It feels like a slow death inside," says Manar, 36, an English teacher from Rafah, who has been displaced 14 times during the war and now lives in a tent with her husband and three young daughters.

She has been awarded a Cara Fellowship – a scheme for academics at risk of imminent imprisonment, injury, or death – to study for a PhD in education at the University of Glasgow.

She submitted one of her grant applications from the roof of a damaged four-storey building, climbing up in order to find enough signal. When she reached the top, Manar says she saw gunfire directed at a neighbouring block, and shrapnel landing nearby.

"I haven't slept for days," she says. "Every day, I wonder which will come first — a message from the UK government, or a missile.

"I feel deeply disappointed by this process, as some scholarship holders seem to be prioritised over others, even though all of us deserve equal consideration."

Professor Alison Phipps, Manar's supervisor and the University of Glasgow's specialist on refugee integration through arts and education, says she was "over the moon" to hear Mohammed may be evacuated to study at the university, but believes other scholars like Manar should receive the same support to leave Gaza.

"It's been a long hard road for these nine students." she says. "I know they have put in the work, but I know that all the eligible students have put it in equally.

"There seems to be a kind of bureaucratic block, and it would just really help us if the government could identify what that is, so all the students who meet the thresholds can come out."

A UK government spokesperson said it was "working urgently" to support the "safe exit and onward travel to the UK" of the Chevening scholars.

The government is also understood to be considering appeals for support from other Gazan students with places at UK universities, though no decisions have been announced.

Preparing for another late night working in hospital, Mahmoud stresses that while uncertainty remains for him, it is far greater for those who have not yet been told whether they will be evacuated.

"If the UK government does not act now, it will lose not only us, but future applicants from Gaza and other regions facing similar challenges," he warns. — BBC