UNICEF warns: An entire generation of Gaza’s children is at risk of being lost with the collapse of education.

UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Edouard Beigbeder, warned of the risk of an entire lost generation in the besieged and devastated Gaza Strip, where the education system is in a state of “collapse” after two years of war. “This is the third year without school,” Beigbeder said in a press statement after returning from the Strip. “If we don’t start a real transition for all children in February, we will reach a fourth year, and then we can talk about a lost generation.” He noted that with the ceasefire taking effect on October 10, UNICEF and its education partners were able to “return about one-sixth of the children who should be in school to temporary learning spaces.” However, he was referring to learning, not education, as “85 percent of schools have been destroyed or are no longer usable,” with many of the remaining schools being used as shelters for displaced people. Children and teachers also face constant travel difficulties due to displacement and military operations, at a time when most teachers are busy providing food and water for their families. “How can classrooms be rehabilitated without cement? We also need the bare minimum of notebooks, books, tools, and stationery,” Beigbeder asked. “Food is a matter of survival, but education is hope,” he added. He noted that he was deeply moved by what he described as the Gazan community’s determination to “reorganize its lives, clear the rubble, reopen small shops, and try to restore a sense of normalcy.” But he also expressed “shock” at the scale of the destruction, saying, “It is difficult to imagine that 80% of the Gaza Strip has been almost completely razed to the ground,” leaving only “small pockets of buildings here and there.” It is worth noting that 20,058 students have been killed and 31,139 wounded since the start of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank on October 7, 2023. According to the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, the number of students killed in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the aggression has reached more than 19,910, and those injured has reached 30,097. In the West Bank, 148 students were killed, 1,042 were injured, and 846 were arrested.