Education in Gaza has become a distant dream, with every family seeking any means to preserve their children’s future.

Nine-year-old girl Jouri Muhanna from Gaza City said she misses her school and friends and wants to write on the board again.

She keeps a box of colored pencils in her small bag, though she hasn’t used them for over two years.

Jouri’s mother tries to compensate for this interruption by enrolling her in an e-learning system launched by Gaza’s Ministry of Education, but faces harsh realities including repeated forced displacement, power outages, and weak internet amid ongoing Israeli bombing in the extermination war.

The mother said, “Education in Gaza has become a difficult dream; every family looks for any way to save their children’s future.”

On August 13, the UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini stated on X platform that one million children in Gaza are deprived of education and suffer deep psychological trauma.

The deprivation extends beyond children to all students in primary, secondary, and university levels.

Mahmoud Abu Daf, 18, was about to finish high school and join university, but the Israeli aggression completely destroyed his academic life.

He said, “For the second year, we have been unable to take the general secondary exams (Tawjihi), and our fate remains unknown.”

He added, “Hundreds of thousands of students in Gaza found themselves without seats or classrooms,” noting that educational facilities “have turned into shelters for displaced people fleeing the hell of Israeli bombing.”

In this regard, Ismail Thawabta, director of the government media office in Gaza, said, “The Israeli occupation has deprived about 785,000 students from studying for the third consecutive year,” adding, “It also deprives 25,000 teachers of their basic right to education, in a systematic crime amounting to cultural and educational genocide.”

Thawabta attributed the current situation to the extensive destruction of educational infrastructure due to continuous aggression, stating that over 95% of Gaza Strip schools suffered material damage, and more than 90% of school buildings require complete reconstruction or rehabilitation.

He confirmed that the Israeli occupation directly targeted 662 school buildings, about 80% of total schools, while 116 other schools were classified as damaged, leading to depriving about 140,000 additional students from attending school.

The Israeli aggression completely destroyed 163 schools, universities, and educational institutions, partially damaged 388 others, and 70% of schools used as shelters for displaced persons were affected. North Gaza and Rafah governorates were the most affected at 100%.

He added, “The targeting did not stop at infrastructure but extended to claiming the lives of 13,500 students, 830 teachers and educational staff, and 193 scholars, academics, and researchers,” describing it as “a systematic targeting of the right to education and depriving entire generations of their future.”

He explained that these acts represent “a blatant violation of international humanitarian law, the Geneva Conventions, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which guarantee the right to education and protection during conflicts.”

He emphasized that what is happening in Gaza is not just collateral damage of war but “deliberate destruction of the fundamental pillars of civilian life.”

He called on the international community to “take urgent action to stop this crime and hold the occupation accountable for its crimes against students, teachers, and educational infrastructure.”

Human Rights Watch said on August 7 that “Israeli attacks on Gaza schools will disrupt education for many years.”

It added, “Repairing and rebuilding these schools will require significant resources and time, with major negative impacts on children, parents, and teachers.”

With U.S. support, the Israeli army commits genocide in Gaza, including killing, starving, destruction, and forced displacement, ignoring all international calls and International Court of Justice orders to stop.

The Israeli extermination has left 63,633 Palestinians dead, 160,914 injured, mostly children and women, over 9,000 missing, hundreds of thousands displaced, and famine that killed 361 Palestinians including 130 children.