625,000 school-aged Gaza children struggling with severe trauma: UNRWA

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: News websites
26 Sep 2024 12:47
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Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, has emphasized the immense losses faced by Palestinian children in both Gaza and the West Bank since the Israeli war began nearly a year ago.

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Palestinian children injured in an Israeli airstrike await treatment at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, on October 17, 2023. (AFP)

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has announced that more than 625,000 school-aged children in Gaza are experiencing severe trauma due to the ongoing Israeli aggression on Gaza.

Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s head, shared on the X platform on Wednesday that Palestinian children in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have faced immense losses since the onset of Israeli aggression in Gaza nearly a year ago.

Palestinian children in the #Gaza Strip and the #WestBank have endured terrible losses over the past year.

While nearly 625,000 deeply traumatized girls and boys are out of school and living in the rubble in Gaza, many children in the West Bank suffer from escalating violence… pic.twitter.com/i4OQOhTMUU
— Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) September 24, 2024

“While nearly 625,000 deeply traumatized girls and boys are out of school and living in the rubble in Gaza, many children in the West Bank suffer from escalating violence that disrupts their lives and education,” Lazzarini stated.

UNRWA expressed alarm over a concerning increase in malnutrition, disease, and mortality rates nearly a year into the ongoing aggression.

The agency noted that even before the outbreak of war on Gaza, many families struggled to ensure proper nutrition for their young children as they prepared for their first year of school.

Gaza genocide could set youth back five years

Additionally, a report released by UNRWA warned, on Wednesday, that the ongoing war in Gaza could delay children and young people's education by up to five years, risking the emergence of a lost generation of permanently traumatized Palestinian youth.

“Children have seen that the international community will sit idly by as they are killed. This has left them with questions about values that schools and learning aim to instill around humanitarian principles that teachers will have to navigate,” the report stated.

Since August, UNRWA has been providing educational services in shelters, benefiting around 8,000 children.

However, the report stresses that substantial additional efforts are needed to address significant learning losses, which were already worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, prior to the Israeli aggression on Gaza.

A recent analysis indicated that only 3.5% of the aid allocated for Gaza has been directed towards education, despite a critical appeal from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Satellite imagery examined by the Occupied Palestinian Territory Education Cluster shows that over 90 percent of schools have suffered damage, with many classified as irreparable.