ActionAid International: Gaza children demand to return to their schools to learn instead of living in them

RAMALLAH, Ma'an - Today, the children of Gaza are supposed to be celebrating the end of the school year, but instead of attending classes, they are experiencing another day of a brutal war that has deprived them of education for nearly a full year. Some 625,000 school-age children in Gaza have been out of school since October 7, after an Israeli military incursion into the territory ended the semblance of normal life. Since then, almost all residents have been displaced from their homes - many multiple times - and schools have been transformed from places of learning into shelters hosting thousands of displaced people. Today is supposed to be the first day of school for children after the summer. Since October 7, more than 25,000 school-age children have been killed or injured in Israeli military attacks, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Education, while the United Nations says 261 teachers and 95 university professors have been killed in the first six months of the crisis alone. The past 11 month s have had a devastating impact on Gaza's educational infrastructure. Some 90% of Gaza's 307 public school buildings have been destroyed, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Education, while all of Gaza's 12 universities have been damaged or destroyed. Children, traumatized and exhausted from living in a war zone without adequate food, water and other basic necessities, crave the routine and normalcy that school represents. 'I really miss my school and I wish I could go back to learning,' said 9-year-old Raed. 'I haven't been to school, I haven't studied for 10 months now.' In the West Bank, too, hundreds of schoolchildren are being denied their right to education, as increased restrictions on their movement, as well as incidents of harassment, intimidation and violence, prevent them from going to school. 'Going to school is not a luxury, it is a basic right, yet hundreds of thousands of children in Gaza are being denied an education for the second school year in a row,' said Reham Jafari, Communicati ons and Advocacy Officer at ActionAid Palestine. 'Today, 58,000 children were supposed to have the chance to start school for the first time - instead, they face another day living under continuous bombardment and in unimaginable humanitarian conditions. An entire generation is being denied the chance to learn and build a better future for themselves. It is past time for this crisis to end: there must be a permanent ceasefire now.' Source: Maan News Agency