The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to education, Farida Shaheed, stated Monday that “more than 90% of schools in Gaza were completely or partially destroyed and are no longer fit for use” during Israel’s genocidal war against the entire civilian population of Gaza. The schools in Gaza were subjected to repeated attacks even after they became shelters for civilians.

Shahid stressed in a statement on Monday that the recovery of the educational system in Gaza depends primarily on the end of the Israeli military occupation of the Gaza Strip.

Shahid used the term “Scholasticide ” to describe what the education sector in Gaza witnessed under the Israeli war, noting that this term means the complete and deliberate destruction of the education system .

The second semester of the current academic year began yesterday in the Palestinian territories, but studies are still suspended in the Gaza Strip, since Israel began its genocidal war on October 7, 2023 .

During its annihilation of the Gaza Strip, Israel destroyed most of the schools, whether government schools or those affiliated with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), while the remaining schools were turned into centers to accommodate thousands of displaced persons whose homes were destroyed, which is one of the most prominent factors preventing the resumption of the educational process .

She pointed out that all the universities in the Strip were destroyed, in addition to the bombing of 13 libraries and the complete destruction of the central archive, which contains 150 years of Gaza’s history .

She stressed that education is not only about acquiring skills, but also about “developing self-understanding, collective identity, connecting with each other and moving forward in social unity,” saying: “This is what is being destroyed in Gaza, and I think it is very deliberate, and teachers and students in Gaza were very traumatized during the genocide committed by Israel.”

“The only way to solve the problem is to create large-scale scholarship programs for school-age Palestinians, and we must benefit from the knowledge and experience of highly educated Palestinians in the diaspora,” she added.

“The Palestinians have shown tremendous resilience, and even if it takes a generation or two, they will be able to recover, but only if they are allowed to live in peace and rebuild their lives the way they want, ” Shahid added.

She explained that 10 children lost limbs every day during the war, and that amputations were often carried out without anesthesia. She said: “More than a million children and all teachers will need psychological and social counselling.”