GAZA CITY, Palestine
At least 800,000 students have been deprived of education as Israel’s offensive against the Gaza Strip continues, the enclave’s Press Office reported this Saturday, June 23.
The Office said, according to a statement from the Gaza Ministry of Education, that “more than 800,000 students of various educational levels in the Gaza Strip have been deprived of their right to education since October 7 last year due to the war. genocidal crime being waged by the criminal Zionist occupation in the Gaza Strip.
Among them, “40,000 high school students from various branches will not be able to participate in this year’s higher education examination session, which represents an unprecedented violation that threatens their future and undermines their chances of enrolling in local and international universities.” added the Office.
Early Saturday morning, 50,000 students attended final exams at the secondary school, Tawyiji, in the West Bank governorates and in Palestinian schools abroad, while the Israeli attack prevented students in Gaza from taking the exams.
The Gaza Press Office said that “85% of educational facilities are out of service due to direct and deliberate attacks, posing a major challenge to efforts to resume the educational process once the war ends.”
“Plans are in place to make up the academic year for students from first grade (primary) to eleventh grade and higher education students, to ensure that the academic year is not lost and that they possess the essential concepts and skills necessary for their continuous learning,” indicated the Office.
See also: EU condemns bombing of ICRC office in Gaza that caused dozens of deaths
By ignoring a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continuing brutal offensive against Gaza since an October 7 attack by the resistance group Palestinian Hamas.
Since then, more than 37,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and more than 86,000 have been injured, according to local health authorities.
More than eight months after the start of the Israeli war, vast areas of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on the 6th. of May.
*Rania Abu Shamala and Aicha Sandoval Alaguna contributed to the writing of this note.
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