76% of schools in Gaza require reconstruction, rehabilitation: UNRWA

ISTANBUL 

Over three-quarters of schools in the Gaza Strip need to rebuilt or restored before they , the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, said on Friday.

“In Gaza, over 76% of schools need reconstructing or require major rehabilitation to be functional again,” UNRWA quoted a statement by the Global Education Cluster as saying.

Established in 2017, the Global Education Cluster is a coordinating mechanism between aid organizations working in the field of education in the cases of internal displacement caused by conflicts. It is co-led by UNICEF and Save the Children.

UNRWA added that despite the ongoing war on Gaza, its teams “continue to reach children with play and learning activities,” stressing that “education is a fundamental human right” and reiterating the need for a cease-fire in the enclave.

Most schools in the Palestinian enclave have been turned into shelters for hundreds of thousands of people seeking refuge from the ongoing Israeli bombardment, with many completely destroyed or badly damaged in the onslaught that has continued since Oct. 7 last year.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas.

The Palestinian death toll from relentless Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since last October has exceeded 37,400, according to the Health Ministry in the besieged enclave.

More than 85,600 people have also been injured in the onslaught, the ministry added.

Over eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which in its latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar

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