The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said that 660,000 children in the Gaza Strip are out of school for the third consecutive year due to Israel’s ongoing war of genocide that has been raging for 23 months.

Meanwhile, the West Bank is preparing to open its new school year on 1 September

Gaza: education system completely destroyed

UNRWA added in a statement that “the war in Gaza is a war on children and must stop. Children must be protected at all times.”

It affirmed the right of children to education, explaining that “660,000 children are out of school for the third consecutive year due to the war.”

The UN agency continued: “In Gaza, children are at risk of becoming a lost generation.”

It called for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip to allow children to return to their schools and their lives.

On Thursday, the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education announced the opening of the new school year in the West Bank in early September.

The ministry explained in posts on Facebook that the Gaza Strip has about 700,000 students who have been suspended after two years of deprivation and targeting.

It noted that 70,000 students have been denied access to secondary school over two academic years.

Since the start of the genocide, Israel has killed more than 17,085 school students and more than 1,261 university students in the Gaza Strip, and injured more than 25,213 school students and 2,671 university students, according to the latest statistics from the ministry for the period between 7 October 2023, and 26 August 2025.

The West Bank

In the West Bank, Israel killed about 108 school students and 35 university students during the same period, injured about 739 school students and more than 231 university students, and arrested 372 school students and more than 413 university students, according to the ministry.

Regarding the targeting of educational personnel, the ministry stated that Israel killed 739 school teachers and 226 university professors in Gaza, and injured 3,091 school teachers and more than 1,421 university professors.

It also stated that the Israeli army killed five schoolteachers in the West Bank and injured about 21 others, arresting more than 182, while arresting about 17 university teachers.

Featured image via the Canary