Ali Aljamal came to the US from the Gaza Strip in September 2023 as a 15-year-old exchange student through the Yes program, a competitive scholarship run by the state department.
“My goodbye to Gaza was not enough,” said Ali, speaking over the phone from Redding, California. An eager and organized young man – Ali was the youngest in his cohort – he was so keen to have “a breather from the war zone environment in Gaza” that he didn’t say goodbye to the beach or his friends before coming to the US.
