LONDON: The Palestinian Ministry of Education reported on Tuesday that 20,647 students in the Gaza Strip have been killed since Israel launched its war on the coastal enclave in October 2023.
During the same period, Israeli forces or settlers killed 128 school students and 39 university students in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestine News Agency.
The ministry confirmed that Israeli forces have destroyed 63 university buildings, 179 government-run schools, and severely damaged another 105 schools managed by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees across the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli campaign has also resulted in the deaths of 1,054 teachers and educational staff members in Gaza. Of those killed in Gaza, 19,101 were school students, while the remainder were university students.
Over 660,000 school-aged children in Gaza have not received formal education for over two years, as 97 percent of educational buildings there were targeted by Israeli forces, according to UNICEF.
Some students have recently returned to tent classrooms in makeshift schools but with a reduced curriculum that includes Arabic, English, mathematics, and science.
Israel currently faces charges of committing war crimes and genocide in Gaza at the International Court of Justice. The International Criminal Court, meanwhile, has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the former minister of defense, Yoav Gallant, as well as for three Hamas leaders linked to the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel, who were all later confirmed dead.
