On Monday, 08 September 2025, the Ministry of Education across the West Bank governorates launched the 2025–2026 academic year. While students all over the world set off on a new educational journey, children in Gaza are entering their third consecutive academic year under displacement and constant threat of death, amid the throes of a brutal war that strips them of their childhood and assassinates their right to education. Their future is being systematically destroyed, depriving them of any opportunity to build a dignified life or a safe tomorrow.

As the genocidal war on the Gaza Strip enters its third year, Israel’s machinery of death and devastation continues to commit atrocities, inflicting massive destruction on every stone and every human being, including children, schools, and educational personnel. Since the beginning of the war in October 2023 and until September 2025, around 13,500 students have been killed, while 785,000 students have been deprived of their right to education under Israeli systematic policies. Moreover, more than 800 teachers and educational staff have been killed, along with 190 scholars, academics, and researchers.¹

Moreover, schools across the Gaza Strip have sustained extensive material damage due to Israeli attacks and bombardment, with 95% of all schools affected. More than 90% of school buildings now require full reconstruction and major rehabilitation before they can operate normally again. At least 662 school buildings—80% of the total—have been directly bombed, while the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have completely destroyed 163 schools, universities, and educational institutes. In addition, 388 educational facilities have sustained partial damage, rendering the educational process nearly impossible and impeding the future of thousands of students.² This is not incidental but part of a systematic Israeli policy aimed at de-educating the next generations and deliberately fostering illiteracy by depriving children of primary education—the very cornerstone of their future. The systematic destruction of schools and educational infrastructure threatens children’s social and cognitive development, undermines their ability to build stable and secure lives, and places Gaza’s educational and social future at risk of total collapse.

Despite the siege and destruction, the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip have wrested attempts to preserve their children’s right to education, viewing it as an act of resistance and steadfastness in the face of Israel’s attempts to strip them of all essentials for a dignified life and to devastate their humanity. These attempts and efforts have materialized in the establishment of educational tents in displacement camps and shelters, as well as educational centers run by volunteer teachers with limited support from some organizations. Yet, these initiatives face enormous challenges, as they remain at constant risk of IOF attacks that make no distinction between children and adults. Moreover, these improvised learning spaces are usually located in overcrowded places and lack the most basic necessities-books, stationery, desks, and chairs- turning the mere continuation of education into a daily battle for survival.

“I was a hardworking student at D Preparatory School before the war, achieving a score of 95%. I dreamed of continuing my education with excellence, as I always had, and of being a source of pride for my family. However, since our displacement to the Khan Younis camps and the suspension of schooling, my education has completely stopped. I have not received any regular lessons since. Months later, a makeshift school was opened through individual efforts, offering only four main subjects: Arabic, English, Math, and Science. But I soon found myself unable to comprehend as I once did. The surrounding conditions do not help—there is constant fear, no books, no sufficient educational materials, and the condensed lessons crammed into one or two months cannot compensate for an entire year of study. Instead of sitting in a classroom, I now work selling desserts to earn pocket money and support my family. What I fear most today is that my future will be trapped between a job I did not choose and an education I have lost. I am terrified that my dreams and aspirations of becoming something greater will fade away, leaving me with nothing more than the reality of being a small street seller.”³

Mohammed Ahmed al-Habibi (15), resident of Rafah but Currently displaced in Mawasi Khan Younis

Meanwhile, Sherine Ahmed Salama (26), a teacher in an educational tent, told PCHR’s staff about the suffering of her students, who have been deprived by this genocidal war of their right to education and a normal life

“I face enormous challenges in teaching children, as education is no longer what it was before the war. Being out of school for so long has deeply affected their academic levels. They constantly ask me to spell out words and write them on the board so they can copy them correctly. What concerns me most is their intense fear—when a nearby strike occurs, they immediately abandon the lesson and run in panic toward the tents. Their behavior has also become noticeably more aggressive. The children suffer from lack of focus and are constantly preoccupied with survival burdens inside the camp, such as fetching water or waiting in line at the field kitchen. I can only capture their attention through practical activities and experiments. For instance, when teaching the “nutrition pyramid” lesson, I often have to explain it more than four times before they understand. The harsh starvation they endure makes it difficult for them to even distinguish between types of food and their benefits. They are deprived of the bare minimum. They complain constantly of hunger, lack of concentration, and exhaustion. Even when I assign homework, most apologize, explaining that they have no one at home to help them because their mothers are also consumed by the daily struggle for survival.”⁴

Despite the efforts by the Ministry of Education and UNRWA to launch online educational programs, these initiatives face massive obstacles, most notably insecurity, constant power outages, poor internet connection, and complete blackouts in many areas. The chronic psychological trauma endured by most children in Gaza after nearly two years of a bloody genocidal war adds even greater challenges. This war has shattered their dreams and stolen their childhood, replacing it with fear, anxiety, and constant panic attacks. Some children have lost their families, others their limbs or health, while repeated displacements have drained their strength and energy. The majority now suffer from severe, long-term trauma that will scar their lives for years to come.”

“In January 2025, during the ceasefire, we returned to the Safatawi area in Gaza. After knowing that our home in Jabalia had been destroyed, we still believed that perhaps stability had finally returned, and that I would at least be able to continue my studies online. But we soon discovered that war knows no meaning of stability. Orders came again, displacement resumed, and with it my greatest suffering: the loss of my education. For me, repeated displacement is worse than death, because I die every day as I watch my normal, stable life disappear. In May 2025, I was displaced from Safatawi to Al-Shati refugee camp, and today, in September 2025, I have again been forced to leave Gaza for the south, as ordered by the IOF. I begin my new school year in yet another displacement, this is the eighth time. Throughout this long series of displacement, my academic year has been lost again and again (this is now the third year). I have not been able to keep up with preparatory school, which is nearly ending, and I only studied one month in seventh grade. I could not join the online classes in my original school because we only have two phones at home, and the priority goes to my sister, who is in high school, and my brother, who joined her later. And even if I had the chance to follow what they send, I cannot absorb the huge amount of information. I have nothing left but to sit for promotion exams and move up a grade while I understand almost nothing.”⁵

Mohammed Yasser Afana (14) from Jabalia Camp, currently displaced in Mawasi Khan Younis.

In light of the above, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) stresses that the continued deprivation of Gaza’s children of their right to education constitutes a systematic crime amounting to an act of genocide aimed at eradicating the future of Palestinian generations. Israeli policies follows deliberate measures to destroy educational institutions, including schools, libraries, bookshops, and learning centers; to kill teachers and students; and to inflict conditions that deny children their right to education and development. These practices gravely undermine the intellectual, social, and psychological well-being of children, extinguish their hopes of building a stable and intellectual future, and deprive entire generations of their fundamental right to education and to the opportunities of normal development.

Thus, PCHR urges the international community to take immediate action to compel Israel to end its ongoing crime of genocide against civilians in the Gaza Strip, ensure the protection of children’s right to life as a priority, and safeguard all their other fundamental rights, including their inalienable right to education. PCHR further calls for securing a safe environment that enables children to learn and grow up normally.

1. Government Media Office, Press Release No. (961), 6 September 2025: Government Media Office, Press Release No. (961), 6 September 2025 ↩︎
2. Ibid ↩︎
3. A testimony received by PCHR on 07 September 2025 in Khan Younis. ↩︎
4. A testimony received by PCHR on 09 September 2025 in Gaza City ↩︎
5. A testimony received by PCHR on 08 September 2025 in Khan Younis. ↩︎