UNRWA: 300,000 STUDENTS RESUME CLASSES IN GAZA AMID AID BLOCKADE

ISTANBUL, Oct 18 (Bernama-Anadolu) -- About 300,000 Palestinian students will resume classes in Gaza on Saturday under the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the agency said, although Israel’s blockade continues to prevent hundreds of millions of dollars in aid from entering the enclave, Anadolu Ajansi reported.

The agency has “put plans in place to resume the educational process for 300,000 Palestinian students in UNRWA, and this number is likely to increase,” UNRWA media adviser Adnan Abu Hasna said in televised remarks posted on X.

He said around 10,000 students will attend in-person classes in schools and shelters, while the vast majority will receive remote instruction because “it is absolutely impossible to have two years without schooling, preceded by two years of Corona.”

Abu Hasna said 8,000 teachers will take part in the programme.

Education in Gaza has been suspended since Oct 8, 2023, following the start of Israel’s genocide in the enclave. Most UNRWA and government schools were converted into shelters for displaced families, while many others were destroyed or severely damaged.

According to data from the Palestinian Education Ministry, as of Sept 16, Israel had destroyed 172 government schools, bombed or damaged 118 others, and struck more than 100 UNRWA-run schools.

The ministry said 17,711 students have been killed in Gaza since the start of the genocide and 25,897 injured. It also reported the deaths of 763 education-sector employees and injuries to 3,189 others.

“We also have a plan in the health sector to revitalise 22 central clinics in the Gaza Strip,” Abu Hasna said. “We have dozens of food-distribution points and thousands of employees with great logistical experience.”

He added that UNRWA had already purchased supplies worth hundreds of millions of dollars that remain stuck outside Gaza.

Abu Hasna condemned Israel’s obstruction of the relief effort, saying, “Many basic necessities, including shelter materials, blankets, winter clothing, and medicines, are not being allowed into Gaza from the Israeli side, worsening the humanitarian situation.”

He warned that 95 per cent of Gaza’s population now depends on humanitarian assistance after losing their sources of income and that conditions are deteriorating rapidly.

“Hundreds of thousands of displaced people are living in the open after returning to Gaza City following the entry into force of the ceasefire on Oct 10,” he said. “Bringing in aid has become an urgent necessity before winter.”

The Gaza ceasefire deal was reached between Israel and Hamas last week, based on a plan presented by US President Donald Trump. The first phase included the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. The plan also envisages the rebuilding of Gaza and the establishment of a new governing mechanism without Hamas.

Since October 2023, Israeli attacks have killed nearly 68,000 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children, and rendered the enclave largely uninhabitable.

-- BERNAMA-ANADOLU