Over 415,000 displaced people in Gaza are taking refuge in U.N. schools that have been turned to shelters, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) reported on Sunday.
In a statement shared on social media, UNRWA posted the testimony of Aisha, one of the many Gazan women taking shelter in a school.
Expressing her exhaustion, Aisha said: "This place is meant for education, not for living."
"We suffer immensely under the health conditions we are experiencing, the economic conditions, the struggle to secure food and drink – there is no support, no assistance," she added.
"Hundreds of thousands more are trying to survive in even worse conditions in makeshift shelters,” the U.N. agency said.
School was supposed to start in September this year, but Israel's genocide and displacement, with 64 attacks against schools-turned-shelters in October alone, make this impossible, according to the UNICEF.
Over 57,000 first graders joined the 658,000 children that had already been denied an entire school year of learning.
For the first time in decades, a graduating class was not able to complete the requirements to graduate.
At least 64 attacks against schools – almost two every day – were registered in the Gaza Strip in October, UNICEF reported. An estimated 128 people were reportedly killed in the strikes, many of them children.
The attacks brought the overall number to 226 such attacks since the start of the conflict last year. In total, over 1 million children have been displaced in the last 14 months.
"Schools should never be on the frontlines of war, and children should never be indiscriminately attacked while seeking shelter," said UNICEF executive director, Catherine Russell.
"The horrors we are seeing in Gaza are setting a dark precedent for humanity, one where children are hit with bombs at record numbers while looking for safety inside classrooms. Trauma and loss have become their daily norm."
In addition to shelter, some of the schools also provide malnutrition treatment points for those in need.
Under International Humanitarian Law, schools are protected spaces. Yet, since the onset of hostilities in October 2023, more than 95% of schools in Gaza have been partially or completely destroyed. At least 87% will require significant reconstruction before they can function again.
Israel genocidal war on Gaza Strip since the Hamas incursion in October last year, has killed over 44,400 people, most of them women and children.
