Aside destroying residential structures, rendering health care facilities ineffective, causing forced displacement of people and starvation, Israel’s ongoing offensive against Hamas in the Gaza strip has jeopardized the enclave’s teaching and learning structure.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Education, more than 4,037 students and 209 educational staff were killed between October 7 and December 26, and more than 7,259 students and 619 teachers were injured in Gaza.
The ministry and several education-focused NGOs reported that 352 schools across the Gaza Strip have sustained damage, affecting the education of 400,700 students (52.1 per cent girls).
Three governorates (Gaza, Khan Younis and North Gaza) are highly affected, accounting for 74 percent of the total damage.
Also, Arif Husain, Chief Economist of the World Food Programme, stated that the scale and speed of the unfolding acute food insecurity situation in Gaza, observed over two months, are unprecedented in severity.
The UN agency said that the entire population in the Gaza Strip faces an imminent risk of famine.
According to a report made by several UN agencies and NGOs, the proportion of households affected by acute food insecurity is the largest ever recorded globally.
Meanwhile, UN agency, OCHA announced that there have been 367 Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians since October 7, 2023.
Per the agency’s statement, the violence resulted in Palestinian casualties; 36 incidents, damage to Palestinian-owned property; 285 incidents, or both casualties and damage to property; 46 incidents.
The weekly average of incidents since October 7 stands at 32 compared with 21 per week between January 1 and October 6, 2023.
The agency disclosed that one-third of these incidents included firearms, including shootings and threats of shootings. In nearly half of all recorded acts, Israeli forces were either accompanying or reportedly seen as supporting the attackers.
It noted that the total number of people displaced following the demolition of their homes has risen to 393 Palestinians, including 208 children.
The demolitions are carried out because of the lack of Israeli-issued building permits in “Area C” of the occupied West Bank and in occupied East Jerusalem, which are almost impossible to obtain, the agency said.
The monthly average of displacement between October 7 and December 7 represents a 27 percent increase compared with the first nine months of the year.
Erdogan Criticizes Western Support For Israel
In other developments, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that UN, EU have “failed.”
Speaking about Israel’s war on Gaza at the Scientists award ceremony in Ankara, Erdogan noted that Israeli violence and the number of Palestinian deaths, largely children and women, in Gaza since October 7, has functioned as “a litmus test” and showed who sought to either defend or exploit “human rights and dignity.”
He then levelled criticism at those who “act as apostles of democracy”, including the UN Security Council, international media organizations and the EU, adding that they had “failed in this crisis.”
Erdogan reiterated his criticism of Western support for Israel and said that Turkey was ready to welcome academics and scientists who faced persecution because of their views of the conflict in Gaza.
He asserted that Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu is “no different” from Hitler.
Erdogan also likened Israel’s attacks on Gaza to the treatment of Jewish people by the Nazis.
He was reported as saying as there is “no difference” between what Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu is doing in Gaza and what Nazi leader Adolf Hitler did decades ago in Europe.
It is not the first time Erdogan has compared Israel to Nazi Germany, and in July 2014, the Turkish president accused Israel of “keeping Hitler’s spirit alive” during a war with Gaza.
