Ashraf Eljedi (al-Jadi) (اشرف يحيى الجدي) was the Dean of the School of Nursing that was established in 1985 at the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG) and, according to a Facebook post by the Palestinian Nursing Association, was promoted to the position of professor of Public Health in October 2020. He received his doctorate in Public Health from the University of Bielefeld, in the eponymous city in northwestern Germany in 2005. His dissertation, Diabetes Mellitus and Quality of Life of the Palestinian Diabetic Refugees in the Refugee Camps in Gaza Strip‏, signaled his future research interests: health-related quality of life, refugee health, chronic diseases, infection control and prevention, and Diabetes Mellitus.

Google Scholar lists about twenty-five authored articles by Eljedi, some single-authored and others jointly with one or more colleagues. He was also an active scientist and served as an Editorial Board member of the international, open-access Journal of Nursing and Patient Health Care (JNPHC). According to the JNPHC website, he was awarded the certificate of reviewer by Wiley’s Nursing Open for reviewing four manuscripts in 2020. He is also reported as having recited the entire Quran in one session.

Eljedi was killed along with at least 17 other Palestinians, among them an 11-months-old baby, when the al-Shuhada’ school at which they were sheltering in the al-Nusayrat Refugee Camp (Dayr al-Balah Governorate) was targeted by an Israeli airstrike on 24 October 2024. He had six children at the time of his murder. 

Ziyad Abu-Tu`aima, a former student , posted, “May God have mercy on the beloved Dr. Ashraf al-Jedi. I was honored to have him as the supervisor of my MA thesis, and I learned a great deal from him. He influenced me enormously and he was a role model of learning, moral conduct, religiosity, and humility.” His son, Hamza, told the correspondent of the Palestine Information Center, “I mourn my father, I do not need to enumerate his scientific accomplishments for these are numerous, and his heart was full of the Quran as a book of guidance and a source to hold in memory.”

(Dr. Eljedi, right, and Dr. Yusuf al-Jeesh, left, from the Faculty of Nursing at IUG on a visit to Hertfordshire University-London, Faculty of Health Sciences)

Photo credits: JNPHC; IUG website