Editor's note: this story was originally published Nov. 22, 2023

MONROE — Wisconsin friends of Anastasia Yacoub can breathe a sigh of relief. Yacoub, a Palestinian-exchange student at Monroe High School in the 2022-23 school year, safely escaped Gaza on Nov. 18 and is now sheltering with family in Jordan, a Middle Eastern country a little less than half the size of Wisconsin that borders Israel to the east.

“Only people who have other passports than the Palestinian can leave and my dad is Jordanian,” Anastasia told the Times via email. “Thankfully we were able to leave. It was very scary crossing the border. We were scared they were going to bomb the Rafah border again as they did many times during this war. And it was a very long waiting.”

The Rafah border crossing is on the south edge of the Gaza Strip, connecting the Palestinian region with Egypt. It is one of just three roads out of Palestine, with the other two controlled by Israel.

Since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, sparking a brutal retaliation of rocket fire and humanitarian war crimes, Anastasia and her family had one thing on their mind: Survival.

The surprise Hamas offensive killed 1,200 Israelis and took another 200-plus as hostages. Israel countered with a litany of bombings over the past seven weeks, turning much of Gaza City into rubble, killing more than 12,000 Palestinians, including about 5,000 children.

When Israel’s counterattack began, which included thousands of rockets flying into the Gaza Strip every day, Anastasia and her family had to move quickly. Their home — once already destroyed this year by Israeli rockets — was hit again while being rebuilt, and they quickly traveled south where the exchange of rockets was much lower.

The family still saw death and destruction every day. Rockets still hit near the compound where they were sheltering with 50,000 other Palestinians. Israel had shut off or limited water and food supplies, as well as fuel, electricity and telecommunications. The Israeli response was widely condemned across much of the international world as war crimes.

During the first six weeks of the war, Israel continuously told Palestinian civilians to leave the northern half of Gaza to avoid the shelling. 

On Nov. 16, Israel began dropping leaflets in the southern half anyway, warning of an imminent offensive around the area of Khan Younis — which is where Anastasia and her family was sheltering.

“It’s near us and many people are telling us they dropped papers saying our part is dangerous but we’re not sure,” she said on Nov. 17. “How close I am to rocket attacks or gun fire? Very close, I see death in my eyes everyday. Rockets fly from above me, and I always think they’re falling on us but bombing something around us. Every night I hear gunfire and it gets closer every night. So yes, it’s all around us and we can’t be safe.”

Feeling a sense of desperation, she and her family started thinking outside of the box. Of the ideas: If they could even get Anastasia out, could she ultimately make it back to Monroe and continue school?

The school year in Gaza was canceled because of the war — many of the schools were bombed, and many of the schools fatally lost a large number of students to the Israeli shelling.

Then, the Yacoubs found a way out thanks to Anastasia’s father’s Jordanian heritage. Within hours on Nov. 18, the Yacoubs went from looking for water, food and a new place to shelter from incoming rockets, to crossing the Rafah border, and, later that day, making it to Jordan with family.

While being in Jordan is vastly safer than Gaza, tensions across the region are still high. Militant groups from several countries, including Yemen and Syria, have sent rocket fire into Israel as well over the past six weeks. 

Anastasia would also like to continue her education, but Jordanian rules make it impossible for her to begin classes during the school year.

Out of the Gaza war zone and with the potential to gain a Jordan passport, she now has set her sights on returning to  familiar — and much safer — scenery: Green County.

“All schools here refuse to take me because they don’t take anyone in the middle of the year. That’s why I was asking if the Monroe school can take me again. I don’t want to lose my chance for education. I can get the visa much easier in Jordan,” Anastasia said. “We’re not doing much other than looking for schools for me and my brother to continue our education. I don’t want to lose a year and have to repeat 11th grade again.”

According to School District of Monroe Administration, there is no virtual school Anastasia can take with the district. If she can make it back to Green County and find someone to live with, she could enroll and walk the halls of MHS once more.

The question then is how to get back?

“Our money is in a bank of Palestine and it’s only in Palestine. All the savings and salaries of my parents’ are in this bank. It’s a local bank and there’s no branch outside of Gaza,” Anastasia said.

Back in May 2023, a GoFundMe was created for Anastasia and her family after their apartment building had first been struck by Israeli rockets, destroying their home. Potentially, that route could be re-created, but it is a matter of her gaining a Jordanian passport, a bank account and plane ticket to fly back to Wisconsin. Whether her 5-year-old brother Alexander and/or her parents join them are separate questions altogether. One-way from Amman, Jordan to Chicago in December are going for around $700, according to multiple travel websites, like Orbitz and Kayak.

The office of Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin said that because the Yacoubs are not U.S. citizens, her office wouldn’t be able to help much, suggesting instead for Anastasia to apply for a school visa or even to apply for U.S. citizenship.