UNRWA says 85% of its schools in Gaza, or 477 out of 564 buildings, have been either directly damaged or require significant repairs to become operational again.
A gradual resumption of educational activities has begun in some shelters in the central and southern Gaza Strip, a UNRWA official has said.
The resumed activities are part of a long-term plan, focusing initially on sports, arts, drama, and games, Inas Hamdan, the Media Director for the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees explained in an interview with the Anadolu news agency.
Hamdan reportedly said these activities will also include psychosocial support for students in various shelters, tailored to the prevailing conditions.
Israel Strikes ‘Five UN Schools In Ten Days’ in Gaza – UNRWA
The media director pointed out that while this step aims to help children affected by the ongoing war regain a semblance of normalcy, it is still too early to discuss a comprehensive educational plan due to the continuing war and multiple challenges.
Schools Targeted
UNRWA said earlier this week that 85% of its schools in Gaza, or 477 out of 564 buildings, have been either directly damaged or require significant repairs to become operational again.
It said “nearly 7 in 10” UNRWA schools in Gaza were hit during the war.
Philippe Lazzarini, the agency’s Commissioner-General, said that targeting schools was an “almost daily occurrence.”
“The war robbed the girls and boys in Gaza of their childhood & education,” he stressed.
An almost daily occurrence.
At least eight schools hit in the last 10 days, including six @UNRWA schools.The war robbed the girls and boys in #Gaza of their childhood & education.
Schools must never be used for fighting or military purposes by any party to the conflict.… pic.twitter.com/nJE5hfy9df
— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) July 17, 2024
Lazzarini said schools “must never be used for fighting or military purposes by any party to the conflict. Schools are not a target.”
He added that “all rules of war have been broken in Gaza” as the “blatant & constant disregard of international humanitarian law continues unabated.”
At least 8,572 students have been killed in Gaza, 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 last month, citing the Ministry of Education and Higher Education.
Ongoing Genocide
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 39,550 Palestinians have been killed, and 91,280 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’.
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.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
(Anadolu, PC)
