UNRWA: Israel kills the equivalent of a classroom full of children each day in Gaza

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) estimated that since October 2023, Israel, the occupying power, has been killing the equivalent of a classroom full of children each day, with the number of students ranging between 35 and 45.

“Every single day since the start of the war in Gaza, on average, a classroom full of children has been killed,” said Acting Director of UNRWA Affairs in Gaza, Sam Rose.

Before the outbreak of the genocidal war that turned the majority of UNRWA-run schools into shelters for displaced people, the number of students per classroom ranged between 35 and 45, depending on the level of overcrowding in the schools.

Children have paid a heavy price in the ongoing genocide committed by Israel for more than 21 months, during which over 18,000 children have been killed and about 16,854 of them have been admitted to hospitals, according to medical sources.

Children in the Gaza Strip also live a harsh reality due to repeated waves of displacement, as well as hunger and thirst resulting from the occupation’s policies of destroying food and water sources and blocking border crossings.

On 8 July of this year, UNRWA stated that children in Gaza make up half of the population (which totals 2.4 million), and their lives are marked by war and destruction.

The Israeli aggression on Gaza has left more than 197,000 civilians killed and injured, mostly children and women, with over 11,000 missing, in addition to hundreds of thousands displaced and famine that has claimed many lives, including dozens of children.

READ: UNRWA warns of soaring levels of poverty and malnutrition in Gaza