https://arab.news/wqn9w
Last week, after two very long years, children in Gaza at last returned to the classroom, albeit mainly in makeshift schools. It gives some solace to see children, after the loss and trauma they have suffered, going back to where they should be and to what they should be doing at their age: furthering their education and building their future, not sheltering from bombs and bullets.
In times of war, no one suffers more than children, who are bound to be left with life-long scars. Worse, despite the ongoing so-called ceasefire, children are still being killed by Israeli airstrikes.
According to UNICEF, more than 97 percent of schools have been damaged or destroyed and will require either complete reconstruction or intensive rehabilitation to meet the educational needs of the 658,000 school-age children in Gaza, who have had limited access to face-to-face learning throughout the war.
Education, as with many other public services, is provided in Gaza and the West Bank by UN agencies and other international nongovernmental organizations. You might justifiably think that the illegal occupying force of these territories, which has both moral and legal obligations to ensure the provision of public services to those forcefully occupied, would be grateful that someone else is forking out for a bill that is Israel’s responsibility. Well, this is far from being the case; in fact, the complete opposite holds true: these organizations are under constant attack by Israel, which is both mindless and brazen.
