A silence has fallen over the manicured campuses of Doha's Education City, broken periodically by the boom of intercepted missiles overhead.
Universities in the sleek district in the northwest of the Qatari capital, including branches of six US colleges, have shuttered since Tehran launched its ongoing missile and drone campaign against Gulf states.
With some students evacuated in response to Iranian threats and classes moved online, some fear a prolonged war could keep them out of classrooms indefinitely.
"I am really worried... It's really hard to tell what's going to happen and how long this is going to take", Shayan, a 19-year-old student said in Education City.
"Especially for a major like mine, that worries me, because we do a lot of practical, hands-on work and I'm feeling like that aspect is being wasted", the media student said.
"Everything is so unpredictable, you just cannot control your reaction... it's been pretty hard".
Nisaba, also 19, said she had hoped the attacks might stop in a matter of days "but as it progressed... I've become more realistic about it, that this will likely go on for a long time".
"We're in at the point where this is just like Covid again. So we're all stuck at home. We can't really go out anywhere. But I don't know it's just uncomfortable... and it also scares me a lot", she said.
"I really miss my friends and I want to be back at university".
Qatar has borne the brunt of Iran's attacks in response to US-Israeli strikes that sparked the Middle East war with a Wednesday attack by Iran on the world's largest gas hub in Qatar a major escalation in the nearly three-week war.
At the start of the war on February 28, Qatar's education ministry said all schools, universities and nurseries would shift to distance as a precautionary measure until further notice.
On Saturday, Qatar's interior ministry said it was "evacuating several key areas as a temporary precautionary measure", after Iran's military said it would launch strikes against US and Israeli economic interests in the region.
Qatar Foundation, which operates Education City and partners with US universities including Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon and Northwestern, said authorities evacuated 282 students from the district on Saturday.
Karim Fanous, a 23-year-old medical student from Jordan, said he was awoken by alerts on his phone in the early hours of Saturday morning and told to pack.
"It was very stressful because it was the first time that we felt the explosions really shake the entire area, because it was very close by. I think it was less than a kilometre away from us", he said.
"Everyone was obviously very stressed... getting kicked out of your home at 2 am in the morning and not knowing where you were going. We were only given that information, later on, throughout the night", Fanous said.
"To be subjected to this level of attack was something that all of us were shocked about, especially that Qatar has consistently ranked as one of the safest and most peaceful countries around the world", he added.
Sharon Ogachi, a 26-year-old Kenyan student studying sports and entertainment management said the evacuation was 'well organised' with buses arriving quickly.
"We didn't see this coming... it obviously shook me at first because I have never been in such a situation before", she said. — AFP
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