The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has warned that more than 660,000 children have been deprived of schooling for a third consecutive year due to relentless Israeli genocidal war across the besieged Palestinian territory.
“The war in Gaza is a war on children and it must stop. Children must be protected at all times,” UNRWA said in a recent statement.
The UN agency further cautioned that the besieged region’s youth are at risk of becoming a “lost generation.”
The Palestinian Education Ministry said around 700,000 students in the blockaded strip have seen their schooling suspended under incessant bombardment by the Israeli invading forces.
According to ministry data, more than 70,000 have remained unable to take high school exams for two consecutive years.
Israeli attacks since October 2023 have killed at least 17,000 school students and more than 1,200 university students in Gaza, while injuring tens of thousands more.
Nearly 1,000 education workers have been killed in Gaza, and thousands more injured or detained across the besieged strip.
Also in the occupied West Bank, dozens of students have been killed, wounded, or detained by Israeli forces during the same period. The toll has extended to teachers and academic staff.
