The new academic year officially started in the Palestinian territories last Monday. However, since all the schools are closed due to the 11-month-long Israeli military aggression, the students of Gaza have no chance to return to the educational institutions. Israel continues to issue new orders to Gaza residents to evacuate their homes.
Umm Zakir’s son, 15-year-old Mowataz, was supposed to be in the 10th standard. But he is now destitute in war-torn Gaza. He is staying in Deir Al Balah refugee camp.
A mother of five told Reuters in a text message that the day was usually meant to be rejoicing. Children will go to educational institutions in new clothes with dreams of becoming doctors and engineers. But there is only one thing we want today, and that the war ends before we lose any children.
As with any society, the future of Gaza is its children. But children are the target of war in Gaza. If this continues, they may lose their rights altogether.
The Palestinian Ministry of Education said all schools in Gaza were closed and 90 percent were completely destroyed or damaged after Hamas fighters attacked the Israeli town in October last year. The school buildings that are still partially intact in Gaza have been turned into shelters for the displaced by UNRWA, the United Nations’ Palestinian relief agency.
Juliet Touma, the organization’s communications director, told Reuters that the longer children are out of school, the less likely they are to learn. The risk of dropping out of education will also increase. They will be subjected to exploitation such as child marriage, child labor and recruitment into armed groups. As a result, they are at great risk of becoming a lost generation.
According to the Ministry of Education, 625,000 children registered in schools have been deprived of education. And another 58,000 six-year-old students were supposed to enroll in the first class this year. Last month, UNRWA launched a back-to-learning program in 45 of its shelters. There, teachers have started games, drama, drawing, music and sports programs to help children’s mental health.
Earlier, United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA) Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini, returning from his fourth trip to Gaza, said there are more than five million primary and secondary school children. But people’s homes were destroyed by Israeli attacks. How will the children go back to school if they can’t be brought back there? So I fear that a generation of children is in danger of being lost.
Almost all of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been forced to flee their homes. In the meantime, the United Nations has called on Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip to come forward to vaccinate children under the age of 10 against polio. The war has been temporarily suspended to allow for a vaccination program after the first polio cases in Gaza in nearly 25 years. The goal of suspending the war is to make it possible to reach about 640,000 children in Gaza with polio vaccines.
A polio vaccination campaign in southern and central Gaza has so far reached more than half of the children, UN officials said. The second round of vaccination should be taken four weeks after the first round.
Later on Monday, UNRWA communications director Juliet Touma told Reuters that 450,000 children had been vaccinated under the programme. The health ministry of the enclave said that more than 40,900 Palestinians have been killed since the start of Israel’s invasion of Gaza on October 7 last year.
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