Children and families in Gaza have faced five attacks on schools-turned-shelters by Israeli forces in the first week of the new school year, with at least three children reported killed and scores of children injured, said Save the Children.
GAZA, 12 January 2025 - Children and families in Gaza have faced five attacks on schools-turned-shelters by Israeli forces in the first week of the new school year, with at least three children reported killed and scores of children injured, said Save the Children [1].
Four of the five attacks took place in North Gaza governorate where the Government Media Office of the Ministry of Information reports at least 5,000 people have been killed or are missing after 100 days of tightened siege and intense bombardment.
An assessment last month on damage to schools in Gaza by the Education Cluster – a group of aid agencies led by UNICEF - found that 100% of schools in North Gaza governorate have been either directly hit or damaged. A September assessment found 96% of all school buildings across the Gaza Strip had been damaged or destroyed.
Attacks on schools are a grave violation against children in conflict. The UN Secretary-General’s annual Children and Armed Conflict report released in June 2024 verified 45 attacks on schools by Israeli forces and two attacks on schools by Qassam Brigades (Hamas) and other Palestinian armed groups throughout 2023. Numbers are not yet available for 2024.
Jeremy Stoner, Middle East Regional Director at Save the Children, said:
“While children around the world have returned to the sanctity of the classroom for the first week back at school for 2025, children in Gaza continue to live a horrific alternative reality. Not only have they missed more than a year of school – the classrooms that once offered a safe space to learn, play and develop have become death traps.
“Save the Children has supported thousands of children in Gaza to safely access quality education for decades. Since October 2023, that has been rendered completely.
impossible. We continue to provide children with informal learning opportunities alongside lifesaving assistance, but it’s nothing close to what they’re missing, and the compounding mental harm they’ve experienced has put that learning even further out of reach. As we found in our November 2024 report, destruction of Gaza's education system not only violates children's fundamental right to education but also threatens the long-term social, cultural, and economic fabric of Palestinian society.
“A lasting ceasefire is painfully overdue – each day without it risks more children’s futures. Even after a ceasefire, restoring schools and the physical and mental safety children need to be able to resume learning will be a mammoth task. Hundreds of schools have been damaged and destroyed, but thousands more children’s lives have been decimated, eviscerating their childhoods and undermining their futures. Buildings can be rebuilt, but the task of rebuilding an entire generation is infinitely more challenging – especially for children who have experienced irreparable harm.”
ENDS
For further enquiries please contact: media@savethechildren.org.uk / +44(0)7831 650409
