Palestinian students take exams amid fighting

Despite a cease-fire Monday between Fatah and Hamas intended to allow Palestinian students to take their nationally administered final exams, sporadic violence has continued.

The Palestinian online news agency Ma'an reports that Hamas and Fatah militants tried to create at least the outward appearance of compliance with the agreement.

In the morning hours, clashes stopped and the streets of Gaza City witnessed a tentative tranquillity. Despite this, gunmen continued to be deployed in the streets, although fewer than before, and roadblocks were partially removed, in order to enable the students to arrive at their schools for the first Tawjihi exam.

Still, like most cease-fires between the factions, this one has proved precarious. Shortly after it started, sporadic gunfire could be heard throughout Gaza, Reuters reports. In one incident, militants fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a police station and a fierce gun battle erupted. An official identified as being involved with the truce negotiations told Reuters that "the cease-fire is limping on crutches and is in danger of collapsing if violations on both sides do not stop."

The tests began on schedule in Gaza, but most pupils took circuitous routes to their schools in a bid to avoid the gunmen as the sounds of shooting punctuated the air, witnesses said.

Musbah Abu al-Kheir passed several armed checkpoints on his way to school from a refugee camp outside Gaza City.

"Fatah and Hamas have no appreciation for the fact we are having final exams today," he said.

"How are we supposed to take exams to the sounds of gunfire and ambulance sirens?"

According to the Associated Press, some 24,000 12th-grade students in Gaza must take the exam, called the Tawjihi, to graduate. For many students, the exam can provide a means of escaping the violence, as many who score well hope to leverage the results to enter foreign universities. The AP writes that students struggle to prepare for the exam as the security situation deteriorates.

Daliya Naji, a 16-year-old high school senior, said the fighting in Gaza had kept her awake all night.

"I am a good student, but I feel my brain is empty," she said. "I can't think any more and I don't know what to do."

She said she hoped she would pass her exams in order to be accepted to a university in Egypt. "At least it will be my ticket out of Gaza," she said.

Hours before the cease-fire began, militants attacked Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya's house at a refugee camp outside Gaza City, reports the BBC. No one was injured, but the incident marks the first time the Prime Minister, a Hamas member, has been directly targeted.

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