Thirteen students and researchers in Gaza have been left unable to take up university scholarships in Belgium after the country's five-party coalition government failed last Friday to agree on an evacuation plan. The students — who hold competitive awards at institutions including KU Leuven, the Free University of Brussels, and the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp — cannot apply for Belgian visas remotely and are blocked from travelling to the consulates in Jerusalem or Cairo where applications must be submitted in person. The impasse matters because Belgium's asylum minister, backed by the Flemish nationalist New Flemish Alliance party, refused to approve the plan without broader concessions on deportation policy, prompting the foreign minister to withdraw his evacuation proposal; rectors from seven Belgian universities have since publicly condemned the outcome, warning that the students' academic year is already advancing while their futures remain on hold.