Today should mark the beginning of a new school year in Gaza, but instead of attending classes, Gaza’s children are living through another day of a brutal war that has deprived them of an education for almost an entire year now.
Since October 7, around 625,000 school-age children in Gaza have been unable to go to school after the Israeli military incursion into the territory put an end to life as normal. Almost the entire population has since been displaced from their homes – many of them multiple times – and schools have turned from places of learning into shelters hosting thousands of displaced people.
On what should be their first day back at school after the summer, children in Gaza have told ActionAid of their longing to get back to learning and see their friends and teachers once more.
Arwa said:
“[I am] an 11-year-old student in the fifth grade. I lost my right of going to school as displaced people need to live there. Most schools were destroyed, burnt down or bombarded as a result of the ongoing war. I really miss my school; I miss my friends and my teachers very much.”
Maryam said:
“My house was bombed, and I now live in my school. I wish to go back home; I wish for the war to be over. I don’t want to live in my school. I want to learn in it. I miss my friends and my teachers…My books were burnt to ashes. My bag was torn, and my notebooks are gone…I wish to go back home. I wish to get back to learning. I want to put on my school uniform and get ready for school. And to buy my school supplies.”
Since October 7, more than 25,000 school-age children have been killed or injured in Israeli military attacks, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Education, while the UN said that 261 teachers and 95 university professors were killed in the first six months of the crisis alone.
The last 11 months have had a devastating impact on Gaza’s educational infrastructure. Around 90% of Gaza’s 307 government school buildings have been destroyed, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Education, while all of Gaza’s 12 universities have been damaged or destroyed.
Children left traumatized and exhausted from living in a war zone without sufficient access to food, water, and other essentials are wishing for the routine and normality that school represents. Raed, aged 9, said:
“I really miss my school and wish to go back [to] learn. I haven’t been in school, nor have I studied for 10 months now.”
Mona, aged 7, said:
“I miss my school and my friends a lot. I miss holding a pen…I miss writing and learning my alphabet.”
In the West Bank, too, hundreds of school children are being denied their right to an education, as increasing restrictions on their movement, as well as incidents of harassment, intimidation, and violence, prevent them from going to school.
Riham Jafari, Advocacy and Communications Coordinator at ActionAid Palestine, said:
“Going to school is not a luxury. It’s a fundamental right, and yet hundreds of thousands of children in Gaza are being denied an education for the second academic year in a row. Today, 58,000 children should have had the opportunity to start school for the first time – instead, they face another day living under relentless bombardment in the most unimaginable humanitarian conditions. A whole generation is being denied the opportunity to learn and build a better future for themselves. It’s beyond time for this crisis to end: there must be a permanent ceasefire now.”
ENDS
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