Israel’s war on Gaza blocks exams and shatters Palestinian pupils’ dreams

Khan Yunis, Occupied Palestinian Territories — AFP

Teenagers across the Gaza Strip should have been taking their final exams this month, a last hurdle before university and lifelong dreams, but Israel’s brutal war imposed upon the battered Palestinian territory has crushed those hopes.

According to the education ministry in the Gaza Strip, 85 percent of educational facilities in the territory are out of service because of the war.

“I was eagerly awaiting the exams, but the war prevented that and destroyed that joy”, said Baraa al-Farra, an 18-year-old student displaced from Khan Yunis in southern Gaza.

“At first we were waiting in the hope that the war would end and we would catch up,” he said.

But “we don’t know how long it will last or how many years it will deprive us of our educational lives.”

Almost nine months of war in Gaza have killed at least 37,598 people, mostly children and women.

The Education Cluster, a UN-backed organisation, estimated in a report this month that more than 75 percent of Gaza’s schools would need full reconstruction or major rehabilitation to reopen.

Many have been turned into shelters for Gaza’s displaced and others have been damaged in bombardment.