Gaza students unable to return schools: official

Gaza students unable to return schools: official
Thu Aug 21, 2014 12:29:24

The school year in the Gaza Strip has scheduled for August 24, but with the ongoing violence, the start date has been delayed indefinitely, according to Ziad Thabet, the deputy minister of education in the blockaded enclave.

Thabet told Al Jazeera that students would be given two weeks from whenever the fighting ends before they are asked to come back to school.

Like all Palestinians in Gaza, young students have struggled under Israeli bombardment.

At least 231 schools have been damaged during the Israeli offensive, while approximately 380,000 Palestinians in Gaza are currently seeking shelter at UN or government-run schools, or with host families.

The Israeli assault on Gaza, which started on July 8, has to date killed more than 2,040 Palestinians, including at least 459 children, and injured another 10,300, according to the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza. Sixty-four Israeli troops and three civilians have also been killed in the occupied lands of Palestine during the clashes.

In Gaza, electricity has been cut off for at least 12 hours each day, the UN reported, after Israeli tank shells hit the strip's sole power plant on July 29, while damage to local water infrastructure is now estimated to cost about $34m.

Israeli fire also hit three UN-run schools acting as shelters in the northern Gaza Strip and in the southern border town of Rafah during attacks in August, killing at least 46 people.

"I'm psychologically exhausted because the war is not yet over... We did not relax during the summer holiday. Our clothes and belongings remain under the rubble... We escaped with the clothes we were wearing and our ID cards," a Palestinian civilian al-Arqan explained.

NTJ/NJF

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