Education for children in Gaza has been replaced by the struggle to survive
Sep 17, 2024
The Palestinian Education Ministry said on 17 September that 11,001 students have been killed and 17,772 injured by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank since the start of Israel’s genocide of Palestinians on 7 October.
According to the ministry, 10,888 students have been killed and 17,224 injured by Israel in Gaza.
In the West Bank, Israeli troops have killed 113 students, injured 548, and arrested 429.
With the conflict nearing the 12-month mark, 625,000 Palestinian children have now lost an entire school year and face the high risk of losing a second year of learning as well.
Some 45,000 Palestinian children who should have begun their first year of school this September have so far been unable to.
According to UNICEF, the lack of schooling for younger children “threatens their cognitive, social, and emotional development. Parents are reporting significant mental health and psychosocial impacts among children, including feelings of increased frustration and isolation.”
“For older children, the disruption to their education has created uncertainty and anxiety. Without schooling, young people are at an increased risk of exploitation, child labor, early marriage, and other forms of abuse, and most importantly they are at risk of dropping out of school permanently,” the charity added.
“Children in the Gaza Strip have lost their homes, family members, friends, safety, and routine,” said UNICEF Middle East and North Africa Regional Director Adele Khodr on 9 September. “They have also lost the sanctuary and stimulation provided by school, putting their bright futures at risk of being dimmed by this terrible conflict.”
Gaza’s schools have now become makeshift shelters for displaced Palestinians who have lost their homes and seek safety from Israel’s brutal bombing campaign.
Despite this, Israel has carried out multiple massacres of Palestinians sheltering in schools.
Last week, an Israeli airstrike killed 18 people sheltering in a UN school in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described Israeli strikes on schools as “dramatic violations of international humanitarian law.”
Rather than learning, Palestinian children and teens spend their days struggling for survival. CNN reports that many spend hours queueing for water or food aid, which remains scarce amid Israel’s ongoing blockade of the strip and its economic collapse. The displacement camps are now crammed with children who have no safe space to play.
“I aspired to complete my studies and help my father feed my family,” said Raghad Ezzat Hamouda, a 19-year-old English literature student, displaced in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza.
“The war destroyed all my ambitions, and there was nothing left,“ she told CNN.
Maryam Shtawi, a young girl staying in the shelter, told CNN, “We used to study, attend classes, do homework, and our lives were happy.”
“Because of the war, we were displaced, and there is no more education, nothing else – no studies. Our lives have turned into fetching water and gathering food. I want to learn.”
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