Palestine Chronicle
Sufyan Tayeh, president of the Islamic University of Gaza
Sufyan Tayeh was never a passing name in the world of Gaza’s academics; he stood among its most distinguished scientific and human figures. Born in Jabalia in northern Gaza, his journey unfolded between lecture halls and research laboratories, and he became a model scholar who united academic excellence with profound humility. In December 2023, he became one of the many Palestinian scholars killed by Israel throughout its scholasticide in Gaza, which refers to the deliberate destruction of Palestinian education and knowledge.
At the age of fifty-two, Tayeh was a professor of physics and applied mathematics at the Islamic University of Gaza. He earned wide international recognition for his scientific distinction, which was the product of years of persistent research and tireless effort under the complex academic conditions imposed by Israeli siege and political reality.
In August 2023, Tayeh became the president of the Islamic University of Gaza—a position for which he had previously been nominated several times but consistently declined. Ultimately, the insistence of the university’s board and his colleagues, who recognized his integrity and competence, led him to accept the promotion.
Twenty-five-year-old Samer Surour, a physics graduate from the Islamic University who was a fourth-year university student when Tayeh became president, recalls the overwhelming joy among students at the news of his appointment. “When I called to congratulate him,” Surour says, “he asked me to pray that God would help him fulfill this responsibility. He did not speak of status or position, but of a trust he feared failing.”
From his earliest days as president, Surour says Tayeh began holding meetings with staff from across the university, listening attentively to their concerns and suggestions while laying out a plan to elevate the institution academically and administratively. He was not a conventional administrator, but an academic who believed that genuine development begins with listening.
His character extended far beyond scholarly and administrative excellence: He was known for deep sense of compassion and humanity. Surour recounts a time Tayeh helped out a struggling student: “I was in his office when a visibly distressed student entered. Dr. Tayeh called the admissions and registration department and asked them to facilitate the student’s affairs and resolve his issue. After the student left, I asked whether he knew him. He replied that he had seen him standing sadly at the department’s door and couldn’t bear to ignore his distress, so he invited him in to help.” He did not know the student’s name—but he could not ignore his sorrow without trying to lift it. Students affirm that he answered calls at any hour.
On the morning of Saturday, December 2, 2023, just hours after Israeli airstrikes had resumed following a brief truce with Hamas, Israel hit the home of Tayeh’s sister in North Gaza, where he had sought refuge from fighting in western Gaza with his wife and children. The bombing killed dozens from the two families, including Tayeh, his wife, his two daughters, and his two sons.
The loss was not merely familial; it was a loss to the nation and to academia.
“He taught me a university requirement course. Because of his kindness, I once told him I wished I were a physics student so I could study all my courses under him,” says Khaled Hijazi, one of his students. “Our losses in war are not limited to buildings, but to minds that were capable of building the future.”
After the strike, Tayeh’s extended family was unable to retrieve the bodies due to ongoing military operations, which made it difficult to access the area. For four months, their bodies remained trapped beneath the rubble. When family members were finally allowed through to the destroyed home, the remains were recovered manually, in the absence of heavy machinery, through exhausting efforts by local residents. It was not a rescue, but a belated attempt at a farewell worthy of a scholar who had devoted his life to pushing the boundaries of knowledge. After months of pain and waiting, they were laid to rest—but the ache of loss remains etched in the memories of his students and loved ones.
Surour says that when he learned of Tayeh’s death, he felt as though a part of his academic journey had collapsed.
“My colleagues called to console me,” he says. “They knew how close I was to him. I did not lose a professor alone—I lost a role model.”
The ideas Tayeh planted in the minds of his students endure. In every paper he published and every student who remembers his advice, his presence continues. In July 2024, Anas Al-Qanou’, then a physics doctoral candidate and now head of the physics department at the Islamic University, defended his thesis online from his destroyed home. It was a clear act of defiance against the circumstances—and he dedicated the achievement to his mentor, Tayeh.
The life of Sufyan Tayeh encapsulates the story of Gaza itself: a story of knowledge born under siege, ambition that grows amid rubble, devastating losses, and enduring legacies. His body has departed, but the knowledge he built remains—bearing witness that great scholars may be taken, yet they are never forgotten.