The Egyptian Committee for Gaza Relief launches a major campaign to support the educational process in the Gaza Strip. Photo: Egyptian Committee for Gaza Relief
The campaign, which came under the directives of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, aims to construct schools and educational points across various areas of the Gaza Strip and equip them with all necessary resources to serve pupils.
It includes providing school desks, and tents needed to set up temporary classrooms at these schools and points, contributing to creating a suitable learning environment for students despite the difficult conditions in Gaza.
There are approximately 658,000 to 660,000 school-age children in Gaza out of a population of 2.4 million, the vast majority of whom have had severely disrupted or no access to formal education due to the ongoing conflict, with most schools damaged or destroyed.
Before Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, the Gaza Strip had around 550 schools and 20 universities, including government and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) facilities.
About 143 of these schools, along with several universities, have been destroyed by the Israeli aggression, while 366 others have suffered partial damage.
Israeli strikes have killed 18,000 school-age children, 1,500 university students, 750 teachers, and 230 professors in Gaza over the last two years.
Organizations like UNICEF and UNRWA are working to provide temporary learning spaces and support to get them back to learning, addressing deep trauma and a critical loss of learning.
For its part, the Palestinian education ministry has launched 25 virtual schools and 234 temporary learning centres, with 80,000 students studying in these centres, and 1,500 teachers from the West Bank helping deliver online classes to over 130,000 students.
The Egyptian campaign comes as part of Cairo’s ongoing support for Gaza, both on the political and humanitarian levels, as well as its steadfast commitment to alleviating the suffering of the Palestinian people amid the Israeli brutal war.
Since July, towards these efforts, Egypt, in collaboration with the UN and its humanitarian partners, has dispatch near daily aid convoys to the strip, carrying food, water, medicine, tents, and winter supplies.
Cairo has been preparing to host a major international conference to implement the Egyptian plan for the reconstruction of the devastated Gaza Strip, which has been endorsed by Arab and Islamic countries.
On Friday, Cairo hosted the first meeting of the Palestinian National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, which is tasked with running the strip perthe truce deal between Israel and hamas that was brokered by Egypt, Qatar, Turkiye and the US.
In an exclusive interview with Al-Qahera News, Ali Shaath, the head of Gaza administration committee, announnced that the 15-member committee members are ready to immediately move to Gaza to begin the work of securing urgent relief to the population and oversee all aspects of the reconstruction process in the strip.
Born and raised in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, Shaath, a career civil servant who graduated from Ain Shams University, hailed the unlimited and prominent support that Egypt has provided to the Palestinian cause.
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