Gaza’s children denied education for third consecutive year
School doors will remain closed in Gaza for the third consecutive year, as children forced to live in tents, ruins and overcrowded shelters are denied education by the almost two-year war, The New Arab reports on September 5th.
Ten-year-old Aisha Ahmed, will not hear the school bell this year. In a tent near Gaza City, she said: “I don’t know what school looks like any more… I try to write my name, but sometimes I forget the letters.” Similarly, 13-year-old Hassan Abu Hasira now scavenges for wood instead of attending class; his dream of studying engineering feels increasingly distant.
Since October 2023, over 17,000 pupils and more than 1,200 university students have been killed due to Israeli attacks. Almost 90% of schools in Gaza are destroyed or severely damaged, and those which still exist are full of displaced families. Education researcher Rami Khalaf described the situation as an “erased future,” warning that “education is the backbone of recovery. In Gaza, that backbone is shattered.” The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has cautioned that Gaza risks losing an entire generation of Palestinian children.
The ongoing war resulted in 788,000 students being cut off from education in Gaza amid widespread infrastructure destruction, as 352 public schools have been damaged.
The situation in which children in Gaza find themselves is further exemplified by a statement released on July 24th from the UNRWA, as the agency’s Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini stated that “people in Gaza are neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses.”
Meanwhile, schools in the West Bank confront their own crisis: Israel withholding clearance revenues has triggered a deep financial emergency. Teachers go unpaid, and school operations continue at a bare minimum level. Palestinian political analyst Hussam al-Dajani framed this as more than logistical issue. Al-Dajani said: “Depriving Palestinians of education means depriving them of the ability to resist, imagine, and rebuild.”
Yet amid despair, acts of defiance persist. In displacement camps, students still carry their empty school bags. Teachers in tents use chalk to teach alphabets. As one educator from Gaza, Samiha Ayoub, said: “Every letter we write in the sand is a message to the world: we are still here, we still want to learn, and we will not let war erase us.”
The New Arab, Maghrebi.org
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