Lessons of war Children pay price amid the trauma of lost education

Mohammad Mosa packed his laptop when he fled his home in October and hoped he would still be able to zoom into classes between airstrikes. The 14-year-old has his heart set on a competitive scholarship and has studied through wars before.

- Aseel Mouse

Two months later, the only new thing he has learned is how to bake bread over an open fire. Intense bombardment and a tight blockade have collapsed civilian life in Gaza into a daily fight to survive. Education is one of the many casualties.

“There is absolutely no form of education or schooling in the Gaza Strip at the moment,” said Jonathan Crick, spokesman for Unicef in Jerusalem. “There were approximately 625,000 (school-age) students in the Gaza Strip, before the escalation of hostilities, and none of them are attending schools now.

“The level of violence and the ongoing hostilities, the intense bombing which is taking place, doesn’t allow for education.”

Outside Gaza, this tragedy has gone relatively unnoticed. Over 7,700 children have been killed, thousands injured, and there is no end to the bombing in sight. Others are starving, severely ill, or at risk of disease because they have no access to clean water or sanitation.

Yet it will certainly be many weeks, more likely many months before any Gazan children start studying again.

For survivors, this gap in their education – on top of time lost to Covid and previous conflicts – will cast a long shadow over their future, adding to the legacy of trauma and loss from this war.

There is no prospect of schools reopening while the airstrikes and attacks rage with an intensity that has not spared Gaza’s classrooms, teachers or students.