Lazzarini: Gaza cannot afford to lose an entire generation

More than 650,000 children in Gaza are out of school and living among the rubble, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, said, stressing that the Strip cannot lose an entire generation, the Palestinian Information Centre reported.

The UNRWA Commissioner said: “We cannot afford to lose an entire generation for two successive years … That is why UNRWA, beyond its life-saving operations, has resumed some learning activities in Gaza.”

One year after the “profound suffering and loss, Gaza has become a completely unrecognisable place and a cemetery for tens of thousands of Palestinians, many of whom are children,” he added.

He explained that the blatant disregard for international humanitarian law and the near-total collapse of civil order are crippling the humanitarian response in Gaza, where “a sea of rubble has replaced the former streets, with almost the entire population now displaced.”

The recent Israeli aggression in the northern part of the Strip “is particularly worrying, as there is no safe place to resort to. In the south, living conditions have become unbearable as Gaza once again teeters on the brink of man-made famine.”

Israeli occupation forces have continued their intensified attacks in northern Gaza for the tenth consecutive day amidst heavy air and artillery bombardment, a siege and starvation, especially in the Jabalia refugee camp, and the complete isolation of the governorate from Gaza City. The Israeli occupation army is also preventing the entry of water, food and medicines, and has committed massacres against civilians, killing dozens and wounding hundreds in an effort to force them out of the area.

READ: Save the Children: What we are seeing in Gaza is ‘the depths of hell’