The Palestinian Authority's deepening budget shortfall is cutting through West Bank society, but is most stark in schools, where reduced teacher salaries and shortened weeks are reshaping the future for around 630,000 pupils.
Unable to meet its wage bill in full, the PA has cut teachers' pay to 60%, with public schools now operating at less than two-thirds capacity.
At an hour when Ahmad and Mohammed should have been in the classroom, the two brothers sat idle at home in the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
The 10-year-old twins are part of a generation abruptly cut adrift by a fiscal crisis that has slashed public schooling from five days a week to three across the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory.
"Without proper education, there is no university. That means their future could be lost," Ibrahim al-Hajj, father of the twins, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
