Education crisis for students in Gaza: More than 630,000 students cannot return to school

On September 9 local time, Palestinian education ministry officials said that due to the Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip, school teaching in the Gaza Strip has been interrupted for the second consecutive year, and more than 630,000 Gaza students will not be able to return to school.

It is reported that nearly 80% of schools in the Gaza Strip have been damaged or destroyed, and some have even become shelters for displaced people. In January this year, the last remaining university in the Gaza Strip was also destroyed by the Israeli military, which dealt a devastating blow to the local education system.

Since the outbreak of this round of the Palestine-Israel conflict on October 7 last year, Israeli attacks have killed about 4,000 students in the Gaza Strip, injured more than 7,000 people, and killed more than 210 teachers and educational staff. United Nations data shows that as of mid-December 2023, 352 school buildings in the Gaza Strip have been damaged, accounting for more than 70% of the local schools.

At the start of the new school year, campuses that should have been full of hope and vitality are now in ruins. A large number of students have lost their opportunities for education, and their futures have become full of uncertainties as a result. The Palestinian Ministry of Education said that despite facing great difficulties, they are still trying to provide online education for students and conduct offline classes in tents as much as possible.

This situation has attracted widespread attention from the international community. Multiple Palestinian educational organizations and institutions have called on the international community and the United Nations to take action to protect the Palestinian education sector from Israeli army attacks, immediately cease fire and rebuild educational facilities in the Gaza Strip. The commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East also emphasized that children's right to education is inalienable. The physical and mental harm caused to Palestinian children by the current Palestine-Israel conflict will take a long time to heal. The education problem of students in Gaza has become a severe challenge under the Palestine-Israel conflict. How to protect the right to education of these students is an urgent problem for the international community to solve.