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Fear of ‘Lost Generation’ as Gaza School Year Begins with All Classes Shut 

Children write in notebooks by the rubble of destroyed buildings near a tent being used as a make-shift educational center for primary education students in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on September 8, 2024 amid the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Children write in notebooks by the rubble of destroyed buildings near a tent being used as a make-shift educational center for primary education students in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on September 8, 2024 amid the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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Fear of ‘Lost Generation’ as Gaza School Year Begins with All Classes Shut 

Children write in notebooks by the rubble of destroyed buildings near a tent being used as a make-shift educational center for primary education students in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on September 8, 2024 amid the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Children write in notebooks by the rubble of destroyed buildings near a tent being used as a make-shift educational center for primary education students in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on September 8, 2024 amid the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

The new school year in the Palestinian territories officially began on Monday, with all schools in Gaza shut after 11 months of war and no sign of a ceasefire.

In its ongoing assault on the Palestinian territory, Israel announced new orders to residents of the north Gaza Strip to leave their homes, in response to rockets fired into Israel.

Umm Zaki's son Moataz, 15, was supposed to begin tenth grade. Instead he woke up in their tent in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza and was sent to fetch a container of water from more than a kilometer away.

"Usually, such a day would be a day of celebration, seeing the children in the new uniform, going to school, and dreaming of becoming doctors and engineers. Today all we hope is that the war ends before we lose any of them," the mother of five told Reuters by text message.

The Palestinian Education Ministry said all Gaza schools were shut and 90% of them had been destroyed or damaged in Israel's assault on the territory, launched after Hamas gunmen attacked Israeli towns in October last year.

The UN Palestinian aid agency UNRWA, which runs around half of Gaza's schools, has turned as many of them as it can into emergency shelters housing thousands of displaced families.

"The longer the children stay out of school the more difficult it is for them to catch up on their lost learning and the more prone they are to becoming a lost generation, falling prey to exploitation including child marriage, child labor, and recruitment into armed groups," UNRWA Director of Communications Juliette Touma told Reuters.

In addition to the 625,000 Gazans already registered for school who would be missing classes, another 58,000 six-year-olds should have registered to start first grade this year, the education ministry said.

Last month, UNRWA launched a back-to-learning program in 45 of its shelters, with teachers setting up games, drama, arts, music and sports activities to help with children's mental health.

'THE SPECIFIED AREA HAS BEEN WARNED'

Nearly all of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been forced from their homes at least once, and some have had to flee as many as 10 times.

In the latest evacuation order, Israel told residents of an area in the northern Gaza Strip they must leave their homes, following the firing of rockets into southern Israel the previous day.

"To all those in the specified area. Terrorist organizations are once again firing rockets at the State of Israel and carrying out terrorist acts from this area. The specified area has been warned many times in the past. The specified area is considered a dangerous combat zone," an Israeli military spokesperson said in Arabic on X.

The United Nations urged Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip to attend medical facilities to get children under the age of 10 years old vaccinated against polio. Limited pauses in fighting have been held to allow the vaccination campaign, which aims to reach 640,000 children in Gaza after the territory's first polio case in around 25 years.

UN officials said the campaign in the southern and central Gaza Strip had so far reached more than half of the children there needing the drops. A second round of vaccination will be required four weeks after the first.

Health officials said on Monday two separate Israeli airstrikes had killed seven people in central Gaza, while another strike killed one man in Khan Younis further south.

The armed wings of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad said they fought against Israeli forces in several areas across the Gaza Strip with anti-tank rockets and mortar fire.

The Israeli military said forces continued to dismantle military infrastructure and killed dozens of fighters in the past days, including senior Hamas and Islamic Jihad commanders.

The war was triggered on Oct. 7 when the Hamas group that ran Gaza attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's subsequent assault on Gaza has killed more than 40,900 Palestinians, according to the enclave's health ministry.

The two warring sides each blame the other for the failure so far to reach a ceasefire that would end the fighting and see the release of hostages.

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Israeli Raids Leave West Bank Palestinians Trapped 'in Prison'

Israeli soldiers during a military operation in Jenin in the West Bank, Thursday, September 5, 2024 (AP)
Israeli soldiers during a military operation in Jenin in the West Bank, Thursday, September 5, 2024 (AP)
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Israeli Raids Leave West Bank Palestinians Trapped 'in Prison'

Israeli soldiers during a military operation in Jenin in the West Bank, Thursday, September 5, 2024 (AP)
Israeli soldiers during a military operation in Jenin in the West Bank, Thursday, September 5, 2024 (AP)

Palestinian man Adnan Naghnaghia has been holed up at home for eight days as Israeli forces were carrying out raids, battling armed groups and making arrests in the occupied West Bank, AFP reported on Thursday.

“It's like a prison,” said the 56-year-old father of five, a resident of the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank, an area targeted in a series of major Israeli “counter-terrorism” operations since August 28.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and its forces regularly make incursions into Palestinian communities, but the current raids as well as comments by Israeli officials mark an escalation, residents say.

As the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza nears its 12th month, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday that Israel must use its “full strength” to combat “the resurgence of terrorism” in the West Bank, which is separated from the Gaza Strip by Israeli territory.

“There is no other option, use all the forces... with full strength,” said Gallant.

The ongoing raids in the northern West Bank have killed 36 Palestinians since last week, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Some of the dead have been claimed by armed factions as members. Israeli forces have also arrested dozens of Palestinians.

In the latest violence, the health ministry said Thursday five people were killed in a strike on a car in the Tubas area south of Jenin, with the army saying it had targeted “armed terrorists.”

The presence of Israeli forces, in their longest operation in decades against Palestinian members in the West Bank, has brought life in Jenin to a standstill, said Naghnaghia.

“They force you to stay inside the house instead of going out and living a normal life.”

Venturing out has become so perilous that Naghnaghia was speaking to an AFP correspondent by phone even though they were both in the Jenin camp, just 600 meters apart.
In the camp’s narrow alleys, armored vehicles and bulldozers have left behind a trail of destruction amid the battles.
Most residents “already left,” seeking safety elsewhere, said Naghnaghia.

‘Exhausted’

Jenin city and the adjacent refugee camp have long been a bastion of Palestinian armed groups fighting against Israel.
While Hamas does not have a strong presence in the West Bank, opinion polls suggest its popularity has grown among Palestinians during the Gaza war, triggered by its October 7 attack on Israel. Other armed factions like Islamic Jihad are particularly active in the northern West Bank.
Years of repeated raids have made Jenin camp residents “experts” at waiting them out, said Naghnaghia who had stocked up food for days.
But now he fears it may not last long enough.
“We plan for two-three days, not one or two weeks,” he said.
On Monday Israeli forces searched the family home where about 20 of Naghnaghia’s relatives including children were staying.
Before they left, he recounted, one of the soldiers fired a shot inside the house, at the ceiling.
The 56-year-old said he did not know why the forces were there.
In Jenin city, 68-year-old Fadwa Dababneh has her groceries delivered to her by an ambulance. Other vehicles have largely disappeared off the streets as gunfire rings out, and many roads have been overturned by bulldozers.
For bottled water, “we arranged with the Red Crescent car, they gave us some,” she said.
Medics treat casualties, but now also deliver food and other basics, or help residents make necessary trips across the city.
One woman, who asked not to be named, told AFP she had to take an ambulance to make it to a routine checkup at a hospital.
“Just look at it - so much destruction, so much devastation. People are really exhausted,” she said.

Shortages

The military operations have forced health professionals to make quick changes to the way they operate. Some, unable to travel home as freely as they used to, are now working 24-hour shifts.
“To leave the hospital now, we need a permit, or we have to coordinate with an ambulance, as the area we’re in is dangerous,” said Moayad Khalifeh, a 29-year-old doctor near the Jenin camp.
He works at Al-Amal, a maternity hospital which has begun taking in wounded from the raids.
“Most of the activity, clashes and blockades happen right at our door,” said Khalifeh.
The hospital’s director, Mohammad al-Ardeh, was unable to reach the facility for a week due to the fighting, instead managing operations by phone, and some staff members have been unable to come to work, he told AFP.

Making matters worse, water supply “has been cut off maybe six or seven times” since last week, and there have been frequent power cuts.
Since the Gaza war began on October 7, Israeli forces or settlers have killed at least 661 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
At least 23 Israelis, including security forces, have been killed in Palestinian attacks in the territory during the same period, according to Israeli officials.