Most of Gaza’s students suffer from psychological trauma and face difficult health conditions, the Education Ministry says.
At least 8,572 students have been killed in the besieged Gaza Strip, and 100 in the occupied West Bank since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October last year, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported, citing the Ministry of Education and Higher Education.
In a statement, the Education Ministry said that in addition to those killed, 14,089 students were injured in Gaza.
In the West Bank, 100 students were killed and 494 others were injured.
In addition, around 349 students were detained.
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The Education Ministry said 497 teachers and administrators were killed, and 3,402 were injured in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and more than 109 were detained in the West Bank.
Schools Destroyed
It pointed out that 353 government schools and universities, and 65 run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Refugees (UNRWA) were bombed and vandalized in the Gaza Strip.
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This has resulted in 139 buildings being severely damaged, 93 completely destroyed. In the West Bank, 57 schools were stormed and vandalized.
The Ministry highlighted that 620,000 students in Gaza were still deprived of enrolling in their schools since the beginning of the aggression. Most of the students suffer from psychological trauma and face difficult health conditions, the report said.
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Rising Death Toll
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 37,925 Palestinians have been killed, and 87,141 wounded. Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
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Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
(WAFA, PC)
