GAZA, (PIC)
On the ruins of her home in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip, twenty-something Israa Abu Mustafa set up an educational tent to teach and entertain students amid the ongoing Israeli genocide for the past 11 months.
Israa’s initiative arose from the loss of an entire academic year for students and the start of a new school year without any hope of its end in sight. She says, “I launched my initiative, despite my prior knowledge of the immense challenges, limited resources, and scarcity of means. However, we Palestinians do not know what is difficult or impossible; all we know is that we are the owners of the land and of determination.”
Inside the modest tent that Abu Mustafa created, the voices of children rise with letters of the Arabic language and songs that fill the place, surely louder than the buzzing of planes and the sound of explosions that shake the area from time to time.
The tent has become a refuge for students, as they have been cut off from education for the second consecutive year and deprived of school seats, facing targeting and killings. According to human rights reports, 25,000 students are among the martyrs and the wounded, while Israel has destroyed 70% of schools and educational institutions.
The Palestinian teacher talks about the psychological pressures faced by children and mentions that she has organized recreational activities and educational lessons to ensure the continuation of education and to prevent children from becoming prey to the raging fires of war.
She adds that she targets children of both genders, from first to sixth grade, following a clear educational plan based on the Palestinian curriculum.
Abu Mustafa confirms that she aims to rescue children from the imminent loss they face by compensating for the knowledge they have missed, hoping for the end of the war, stabilization of conditions, and the students’ return to education to achieve their dreams and ambitions.
Inside the tent, the child Mahmoud Abu Al-Araj expresses his happiness at receiving lessons and recreational activities, easing his fear from the war.
Nine-year-old Mahmoud hopes to become an engineer, pleading for an end to the war and the targeting of children, schools, and kindergartens, saying, “Enough killing of us.”
The new Palestinian school year officially began this week in the West Bank, excluding the Gaza Strip, where parents are waiting for solutions to the educational deprivation their children are experiencing due to the war.
According to data released by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, the genocide in Gaza has resulted in the martyrdom and injury of over 25,000 children, including more than 10,000 school students, amid the destruction of 90% of the buildings of the 307 government schools.
The ministry indicated that more than 630,000 students have been deprived of their right to education since October 7, 2023, and more than 58,000 are expected to enroll in first grade this new academic year, in addition to 39,000 who did not sit for the secondary school exam.
According to the data from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), 200 schools, representing 70% of its educational sites, have been completely or partially destroyed due to ongoing Israeli bombardment. More than 600,000 children are suffering from deep trauma, living in destroyed buildings, and are still deprived of learning and education, as half of them were in UNRWA schools.
Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA Commissioner-General, warned of the danger of “losing generations” in Gaza due to their lack of access to schools because of the war. He stated in a press release published on the agency’s website on September 2, coinciding with the start of the school year: “The longer children remain out of school, the greater the risk of losing a generation, which fuels feelings of resentment and extremism.”
He continued, “In Gaza, more than 70% of our schools have been destroyed or damaged. The vast majority have turned into overcrowded shelters housing hundreds of thousands of displaced families and are no longer suitable for education.”
Lazzarini added, “Without a ceasefire, children may be vulnerable to exploitation, including child labor. A ceasefire is a gain for everyone.”
The Israeli bombardment has led to the destruction of a large part of the vital infrastructure in the Palestinian territory, including educational centers that used to accommodate around one million students under the age of 18, according to the United Nations.
UNRWA launched a “Back to Learning” program, which will bring about 28,000 children to dozens of schools, noting that this program will focus on “psychosocial support, arts, sports, and the dangers of unexploded ordnance, and will then delve deeper into reading, writing, and mathematics.”
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education has launched an electronic learning program for students in Gaza, which parents express their dissatisfaction with, as the necessary internet and electricity services are unavailable for participation in the program.
Earlier this month, UNICEF revealed that children in the Gaza Strip “are the most affected group” by the ongoing situation there and are in urgent need of psychological and educational support.
Despite the existence of many individual initiatives and others supported by civil society organizations, only a few children participate in the educational tents, as thousands refrain from doing so at the request of their families, driven by fear of those centers being targeted, as happened with dozens of schools.
