On International Day to Protect Education from Attack and with the Beginning of School Year in Palestine, 800,000 Students Deprived of Their Right to Education amid Ongoing Destruction of Schools and Universities
Today, the new school year begins in Palestine while Israel has deprived 800,000 students of their fundamental right to education in the Gaza Strip for the second consecutive year. This comes while Israel continues their military attacks and genocidal crimes that have inflicted destruction to all life aspects in the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Ministry of Education and UNRWA have declared an e-learning program that would face many challenges and barriers due to the ongoing Israeli aggression. Israel’s war machine continues to destroy infrastructure, including electricity and communications networks, and kill more students, teachers and academics amid their attacks on the educational institutions; the latest were last August when 15 schools used as shelters were targeted by the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) according to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) field documentation.
For the past 11 months, IOF have committed genocide in the Gaza Strip and launched systematic attacks on the educational institutions by bombing and destroying schools, universities and other facilities as well as killing students, education staff members and academics with both acts falling under the crime of genocide. Moreover, students in the Gaza Strip have been denied schooling and deprived of their right to education over the past year (2023-2024), facing the high risk of a second year without education.
PCHR stresses the importance of having a regular educational process and warns against hundreds of thousands of students remaining without their right to education and collapse of the educational process for the new year amid IOF’s ongoing military aggression that would blow off all efforts exerted to realize the minimum standards for the right to education.
Today, Monday 09 September, the new school year begins in Palestine coinciding with the International Day to Protect Education from Attack. This day, observed on 09 September each year, is an international observance established by unanimous decision 74/275 of the United Nations General Assembly aiming to recognize the importance of ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education at all levels and emphasize the need to take all feasible measures to protect schools, students and educational personnel from attacks and to refrain from actions that impede children’s access to education, and to facilitate access to education in armed conflict.
PCHR emphasizes that for decades, Palestinians have suffered from chronic exposure to IOF’s violations of their right to education across the occupied Palestinian territory. Israel’s policies have taken different forms, including restrictions on movement especially those imposed by the annexation wall, forced displacement, destruction of infrastructure and depriving Palestinians of having a safe enabling learning environment and adequate infrastructure. All this combined has denied the Palestinian youth and children access to quality education irrespective of age and area.
During the unprecedented ongoing military aggression on the Gaza Strip, IOF have created a difficult reality on the ground, where it is hard to ensure a full-scale and quick return of the educational process. This proves commission of acts known as ” scholasticide” and “culturicide” against the Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip due to the Israeli ongoing military attacks, recurrent forced displacement orders and massive destruction inflicted by the Israeli war machine to the educational infrastructure, as emphasized by 19 UN experts and Special Rapporteurs. Up to 30 July 2024, Israel’s genocidal campaign has claimed the lives of 11,402 students, including 6530 females, and 671 members of the educational staff, including 382 women, and inflicted injuries to 42,945 students and 1,262 members of the educational personnel. Also, academics and university students have been directly and deliberately targeted, killing 98 academics including numerous respected scholars and intellectuals, 3 university presidents and 68 holders of PHD.1
On the other hand, IOF have not spared the infrastructure of educational system from partial or whole destruction. As the war and hostilities escalated, Palestinian civilians took refuge in approximately 133 schools, believing it is safe and protected under international norms and laws2. However, IOF directly targeted 274 school buildings, causing damage and destruction to 85.8% of schools; at least 72.5% of the schools need either total reconstruction or major rehabilitation work to be functional. It is noteworthy that UNRWA operates about 29% of these schools. In addition, 12 universities in Gaza were targeted, either through bombing, detonating them, thereby completely destroying them or converting some into military bases and interrogation and detention centers.3 The extensive damage caused to the educational infrastructure will take years to recover after the war ends, posing significant challenges on all fronts.
At least 650,000 students have been deprived of general education as Israel’s months-long offensive against the Gaza Strip continues. Among them, 40,000 students are unable to take their high school Tawjihi final exams. In addition, 88,000 university students were affected, with around 550 unable to pursue scholarships abroad. About 80,000 children of kindergarten age were also denied access to education during the 2023-2024 academic year and are now unable to attend the current school year.4
Farah Ahmed, (17) a student from Khan Younis, stated to PCHR’s researcher: “I am a high school student in the science stream. I had great hopes and ambitions to complete my studies, so I began self-learning from the summer of 2023. However, the war broke out on 07 October, turning my life upside down and destroying all my dreams. In the early weeks, I tried to study on my own, hoping the war may end soon so I could return to school. But the war did not end, and I could no longer study amidst the bombardment. We were forced to flee our home in Khan Younis, leaving behind my books, and then we have been displaced seven more times. My family and I live in a tent, where we suffer from hunger, cold, and extreme heat.”
As a result of the intense Israeli attacks, at least 17,000 children in the Gaza Strip are unaccompanied or separated from their parents, rendering it difficult to shield them from the long-term impacts that threaten their educational future5. Tens of thousands of students were also forcibly displaced with their families to shelters that lack minimum life essentials and enduring bad mental health since they are deprived of recreational activities and psychosocial support. Thousands of them have suffered from traumas due to the constant fear they have lived under for ten months along with food insecurity and malnutrition according to the latest ACAPS report. This is clearly observed in the children’s facial expressions, which will leave a negative impact on their educational future, given the close relationship between a child’s mental health and their ability to learn, concentrate, and focus.
Samiha Al-Nadi, a displaced person from the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood who is currently sheltering in a school with her husband and three children, stated to PCHR’s researcher: “after our house was destroyed, we sought shelter in the same school where my daughter Suhad (9) was studying. She used to excel academically and participate in extracurricular activities like school radio and the student parliament. Now, my daughter is very sad, and traumatized because she has been living as a displaced person in the school for over eight months. The conditions here are unbearable; there is no drinking water, the food is very scarce and unhealthy, and sewage water leaks into the schoolyard. My daughter cries bitterly as she watches the school she loved and spent happy times in turn into a place of miserable living and great suffering. Instead of students in Gaza attending their schools today, they are forced to stand in queue at the scarce water taps to get drinking water or wait in food queues to receive meals to satisfy their hunger and that of their families.”
The Israeli targeting of educational institutions amounts to a crime against humanity, as they are considered civilian objects and are protected in times of armed conflicts. The targeting of these institutions is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, which regulates the conduct of parties in armed conflicts and stipulates provisions on the protection of students, educational staff, and educational facilities, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 relevant to protection of civilians in times of war and under occupation. The Convention emphasizes the right to education at all times and prohibits any hostilities against educational institutions. The Hague Convention of 1907 also provides special protection for educational institutions, and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) states that deliberately directing attacks against buildings dedicated to educational or scientific purposes constitutes a war crime. Therefore, PCHR:
Trial Version
