“Today, despite the extraordinary conditions in Gaza, the new school year begins,” announced the Ministry of Education in Gaza. “This comes despite the immense challenges imposed by the genocidal war on Gaza, the massive destruction left in its wake, and the severe shortage of resources and facilities.”
Since the Israeli war on the Strip began on 7 October 2023, more than 788,000 students have been unable to attend school or university.
Children and women have borne the brunt of round-the-clock Israeli airstrikes and bombardment for a year and a half, accounting for the majority of the 48,346 killed and over 111,000 wounded in the war.
Children have endured unfathomable living conditions as they were displaced from their homes for months and denied access to adequate food and medicine amid a brutal Israeli blockade on the strip.
The education ministry and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) had previously warned that the prolonged disruption to education risks creating a lost generation plagued by psychological trauma and health crises.
On Sunday, the ministry held a press conference at one of the few operable schools in the strip, the Al-Nasr Model School in Gaza City, which witnessed multiple bombardments and massacres.
Al Sharq News reported that several hundred thousand students resumed classes in the remains of schools, more than 80 percent of which had been destroyed by the Israeli occupation forces. Others attended lessons in tents and temporary learning centres set up by the ministry and grassroots initiatives to ensure in-person education.
Due to exceptional circumstances and the lack of uniforms, textbooks, and notebooks, students arrived at their learning sites in regular clothing.
“We fully recognize the difficulties faced by our students and teachers, but we reaffirm our complete commitment to ensuring the right to education for all our children — whether through the schools that remain standing, those that have been repaired and prepared, or the alternative schools and educational points established in various areas,” the education ministry said.
They also urged displaced Palestinian families who have taken shelter in schools — which were opened at the start of the war to accommodate them — to allow the ministry full access to select classrooms so they can serve students.
The ministry also called on all international and United Nations (UN) organizations concerned with human rights, particularly the right to education, to fulfil their responsibilities toward the Palestinian education sector and pressure Israel to permit the entry of reconstruction materials, school supplies, furniture, and all resources necessary to operate the education sector.
Typically, the school year in Palestinian territories — including Gaza and the West Bank — begins in September under the unified Palestinian education system, which covers government schools, UNRWA-run schools, and private institutions.
However, due to the war, students were deprived of education throughout the 2023/2024 academic year and missed the first half of the 2024/2025 academic year.
A Palestinian student carries a placard reading " Palestine, the Mother Who Gave Birth Only to Heroes," as he stands in line during the first day of classes at a school in Gaza City. AFP.
The Cost of War
Al Jazeera aired on Monday scenes of students and teachers in Gaza joyfully returning to school, excited to re-enter their classrooms after a year and a half of deprivation.
During the morning queue at Al-Nasr School, dozens of students lined up, thrilled by the decision to return to education.
After listening to the Palestinian national anthem and watching some students perform artistic presentations, they marched in orderly rows toward the classrooms that had survived the destruction caused by the Israeli war machine.
Teacher Diana Abu Zaaroura was shocked to see the decline in her elementary students' academic levels due to the collapse of the education system in Gaza since the outbreak of the genocide.
However, as she stood beside a blackboard with the words "Oh Gaza, rise and stand tall" written in large letters, she expressed confidence in her students' intelligence. She believed they would quickly regain their footing and compensate for what they missed due to war.
"I spent the months of war in pain and sorrow. Why can't we be like children in the rest of the world? Why do they kill our children and destroy our schools? Why must we endure the pain of losing loved ones?" student Hatem Abu Arab told Al Jazeera.
Hatem, like thousands of Palestinian children, was displaced and separated from most of his family.
Yet, also like them, he was overjoyed to return to school.
Martyrs of Knowledge
Of the 17,800 Gazan children killed by the Israeli occupation forces since 7 October, 12,701 were students. Moreover, 20,702 other Gazan students were wounded, as revealed by the education ministry in a December report.
However, the total number of students killed by Israeli forces in Gaza and the occupied West Bank is 12,820 students, with 21,351 injured.
Within both territories, the Israeli occupation forces also killed 619 Palestinian teachers and school administrators and wounded 3,831 others.
The ministry noted that Israeli airstrikes have levelled 77 government schools in Gaza and severely damaged 171 others. Another 191 schools were bombed or defaced, including 65 UNRWA schools.
Israeli bombardment did not discriminate between schools and higher education institutions, extensively damaging 20 universities, with 51 buildings destroyed and another 57 partially damaged, according to the education ministry.
In a December statement, UNRWA — citing the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) — reported that one child is killed every hour in Gaza as a result of Israeli attacks, underscoring the catastrophic toll on the native population’s youngest.
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