gaza faces difficult first day of school
2024-09-10
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beijing, september 10 (xinhua) -- september 9 is the first day of school in palestine. however, the palestinian-israeli conflict has lasted for more than 11 months, and the war has not subsided. countless palestinian children have died in israeli air strikes, and all schools in the gaza strip have to remain closed on this day.
"this day is usually a day of celebration, seeing children wearing their uniforms and going to school, each dreaming of becoming a doctor or engineer," said umm zaki, a mother of five. "however, today we just hope that the war ends before we lose any of them."
children play in the nusayret refugee camp in central gaza strip on september 3. xinhua news agency (photo by marwan daoud)israel has repeatedly carried out air strikes on schools in the gaza strip. reuters quoted the palestinian ministry of education as saying that all schools in gaza are closed, and 90% of them have been damaged in israeli military operations. there are about 625,000 students enrolled in gaza schools, and this year's school term was expected to welcome 58,000 first-grade students.
the united nations relief and works agency for palestine refugees in the near east (unrwa) operates about half of gaza's schools and has converted many of them into emergency shelters for refugees displaced by the war. juliet touma, a spokesperson for unrwa, said: "the longer children are out of school, the harder it is to catch up, and the more likely they are to become a lost generation, becoming victims of child marriage, child labor and recruitment by armed groups."
data released by the health department of the gaza strip show that since the outbreak of a new round of palestinian-israeli conflict in october last year, israel's military operations in the gaza strip have caused the deaths of more than 40,000 palestinians, two-thirds of whom are women and children, and more than 94,000 people have been injured. (yuan yuan)
