The Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip continues for the 270th day in a row, while targeting every living thing, stones, and trees.
The Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education announced on Tuesday that the occupation has killed 8,672 school and university students in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank since October 7.
Students killed in the Gaza Strip reached 8,572, and 100 others were killed in the West Bank, while the numbers of the wounded reached 14,89 in the Gaza Strip, and 494 in the West Bank.
497 teachers and administrators were killed in schools and universities, and 3,402 were injured in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
620,000 students in the Gaza Strip have been prevented from enrolling in their schools since the start of the war, and 39,000 secondary school students have been prevented from sitting for this year’s exams.
353 public schools and universities, and 65 affiliated schools with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip, were subjected to complete and partial damage and vandalism.
With the outbreak of the devastating Israeli war on Gaza, studies were suspended in schools and universities in the Strip to protect the lives of students from the intense Israeli bombing.
The killing and wounding of thousands of Palestinian students by the occupation is a flagrant violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which guarantees their protection in times of conflict. The systematic destruction of schools and educational institutions constitutes a violation of the right to education as guaranteed in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
The psychological and social impact of these actions on students severely affects their mental health and well-being, due to the tragedy suffered by an entire generation, which requires the international community and human rights organisations to intervene to stop these crimes, provide protection for civilians, and guarantee their rights to education and mental health, in addition to the necessity of holding the perpetrators accountable, and bringing them to justice, especially since these actions amount to war crimes according to international humanitarian law, and require international accountability to ensure that there is no impunity.
Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli occupation forces have been waging a devastating war on Gaza, leaving tens of thousands dead and wounded (most of whom are children and women), massive destruction of infrastructure, and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, due to the continuous bombing and the prevention of supplies of food, water, medicine, and electricity.
