UN: Schools in Gaza Are Closed as Fighting Continues

The new school year in the Palestinian territories officially began on Monday. But all schools in Gaza are closed after 11 months of war. There is no sign of a ceasefire.

Israel gave new orders to people in the northern Gaza Strip to leave their homes. The order came after rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza.

Umm Zaki has a son, Moataz, who is 15 years old. He was supposed to begin 10th grade. Instead, he woke up in the family's tent in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. Water is more than one kilometer away from the tent.

The mother of five told Reuters by text message, "Usually, such a day would be a day of celebration, seeing the children in the new uniform, going to school, and dreaming of becoming doctors and engineers. Today all we hope is that the war ends before we lose any of them."

The Palestinian Education Ministry said all Gaza schools were closed and 90 percent of them had been destroyed or damaged in the war. The war started after Hamas gunmen attacked Israeli towns on October 7 killing about 1,200 people.

The U.N. Palestinian aid agency UNRWA operates about half of Gaza's schools. Many of them are now emergency shelters housing thousands of displaced families.

UNRWA Director of Communications Juliette Touma told Reuters, "The longer the children stay out of school the more difficult it is for them to catch up on their lost learning.” She added that they are then more likely to become “a lost generation.” They are at risk for the dangers of “child marriage, child labor, and recruitment into armed groups."

The education ministry said there are already 625,000 Gazans registered for school who would be missing classes. Another 58,000 six year olds should have registered to start first grade this year.

Last month, the UNRWA started a back-to-learning program in 45 of its shelters. Teachers set up games, drama, arts, music and sports activities to help with children's mental health.

Order to evacuate

Nearly all of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been forced from their homes at least once. Some have had to flee 10 times.

In the latest evacuation order, Israel told residents of an area in the northern Gaza Strip that they must leave their homes. Rockets had been fired from there into southern Israel the day before.

The United Nations urged Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip to attend medical centers to get children under the age of 10 years old vaccinated against polio. There have been breaks in the fighting to permit a vaccination campaign. The U.N. hopes to vaccinate 640,000 children in Gaza. The territory's first polio case in around 25 years was recently reported.

U.N. officials said the campaign in the southern and central Gaza Strip had so far reached more than half of the children there needing the vaccine. Four weeks later, the children must get a second vaccination to complete the treatment.

Touma, the U.N. official, said 450,000 of the children targeted by the campaign had been vaccinated.

I'm Mario Ritter, Jr.

Nidal al-Mughrabi reported this story for Reuters. Jill Robbins adapted it for Learning English.

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uniform –n. clothing that is just like clothing worn by others at a school or in some kinds of jobs

recruit – v. to persuade (someone) to join you in some activity or to help you

drama – n. the art or activity of performing a role in a play

evacuate – n. to leave (a dangerous place)