After three years of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, the enclave’s education system has been devastated, with nearly 98 percent of school buildings damaged or destroyed.

Despite a US-backed ceasefire that came into effect in October 2025, Israeli attacks affecting educational facilities and learning spaces have continued, further undermining efforts to restore education across the Strip.

For the first time in nearly three years, Gaza began seeing a large-scale return to in-person education when the 2026–2027 academic year opened on September 19.

Hundreds of thousands of students returned to classrooms, makeshift schools and temporary learning spaces after years of disrupted schooling.

But the return to education has remained fragile. In less than two months since classes resumed, a series of Israeli attacks affecting schools and educational facilities have once again disrupted learning, exposing students and educators to continued danger.

According to the Gaza Government Media Office, fourteen Palestinian students were killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip in October, with the youngest victims just six years old, highlighting the continued toll of Israel’s ongoing genocide on Gaza’s already devastated education sector despite the ceasefire.

Who are the victims?

1. Misk al-Delou (Six years old)

At around 5 a.m., Misk al-Delou’s family woke to a nightmare no parent should ever face. Misk lay covered in blood. An Israeli bullet had pierced her throat and exited the other side, killing her as she slept beside her only sister in a tent.

Misk was killed on October 18, when Israeli forces opened fire on tents sheltering displaced Palestinians in al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza. Medical sources confirmed that she succumbed to injuries sustained by Israeli live fire.

2. Tahani Shalalfah (6 years old)

She was killed on October 27 by Israeli gunfire in the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

3. Fatima Al-Bayouk (8 years old)

She was killed on October 24 by direct Israeli army fire in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip. She had been the only child to survive an earlier Israeli bombing of her family’s home in Khan Younis.

4. Jouri Al-Soufi (7 years old)

She was shot and killed on October 26 inside her tent during heavy gunfire from the Israeli army and Israeli-backed armed gangs near the al-Mawasi area in the southern Gaza Strip.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education, she was preparing to take part in her school’s morning broadcast the following day.

5. Yamen Saqr (8 years old)

On October 30, he died from wounds he sustained when Israeli forces opened fire in the Qizan Rashwan area, south of Khan Younis. Yamen was shot by Israeli forces in the area two days earlier.

6. Abderlrhman Awad (10 years old)

He died on October 21 from his injuries about two days after being wounded in an airstrike on Al-Jalaa Street, next to Al-Basheer Supermarket in Gaza City.

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7. Mohamed Shaheen (12 years old)

He died on October 23 from his injuries a day after Israeli forces shot him in the head east of the Al-Maghazi camp in the central Gaza Strip.

8. Bara’a Ma’arouf (14 years old)

He was killed on October 20 in an Israeli drone strike targeting a vehicle near the Wadi Gaza Bridge. His body could not be retrieved for about an hour and a half. He was later identified at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat camp in the central Gaza Strip.

9. Waleed Shakshak (14 years old)

He was killed on October 19 in an Israeli bombing in the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis.

10. Tamer Soboh (14 years old)

He was killed on October 19 by Israeli gunfire targeting a group of children in the Tel al-Dahab area of Beit Lahiya, north of the Gaza Strip. His brother carried him over 500 metres to the hospital.

11. Mohamed Abu Hammad (14 years old)

He was killed on October 17 while walking home from school in an Israeli bombing targeting a gathering of Palestinians on Al-Birka Street in Deir al-Balah.

12. Majd Hassan (15 years old)

He was killed on October 20 in an Israeli airstrike targeting the Qizan an-Najjar area, south of Khan Younis.

13. Rafeef Lubbad (16 years old)

She was killed on October 22 by Israeli army gunfire inside her home in the Al-Faluja area of Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, shortly after returning from school.

14. Nimr Barbakh (16 years old)

He was killed on October 7 by a bullet to the head fired by the Israeli army near his family’s tent in the Al-Etisalat area, near Abu Hmeid roundabout, east of Khan Younis.

The Euro-Med Monitor confirmed on October 19 that 19 Palestinian children were killed in Israeli attacks last month, an average of one child every 35 hours. “Children have been killed at home, on the ruins of their houses and while returning from lessons,” it added.

Targeting Teachers 

According to the Gaza Government Media Office, four teachers working in the public education sector were killed in October:
1. Mahmoud Qaffah
2. Wael Muslim
3. Diya Abu al-Rus
4. Ahmad Abu Odeh

Abu al-Rus was killed on October 31 while on his way to school in central Gaza.

The Ministry of Education condemned Israel’s killing of Abu al-Rous, who worked at the Malaysian School, describing it as a new crime against the education community.

It stressed that attacks on educational personnel are not isolated incidents but crimes that threaten the future of Palestinian generations and violate international law.

On October 25, two Israeli strikes targeted students and security guards at the Islamic University in Gaza City, while students were attending classes, killing three university employees: Shadi Abu Ataya, Sami Baroud and Ashraf Dahlan. Several students were also injured.

On the morning of November 6, a female university student, Sara Abu Jayiab, succumbed to her injuries sustained in an Israeli attack in October.

Also, Dr. Yasmeen al-Bobbo, an academic at Palestine University, was killed when Israeli forces bombed a residential apartment.

Gaza Education Under Israeli Fire

As of October 1, 2025, OCHA reported 18,069 pupils and 780 education staff killed in Gaza in Israeli attacks during Israel’s genocidal war. There were also 26,391 pupils and 3,211 teachers wounded.

In April 2025, nine-year-old Retaj Reihan, a third-grade student at Abu Ubaida Al-Jarrah School in northern Gaza, was attending class in a tent classroom when she was fatally shot by an Israeli bullet in front of her classmates, leaving them in profound shock.

“I dropped her off at the school gate, never imagining it would be the last time I’d see her walking,” her father said. An hour and a half later, he received news of her injury. Upon arriving at the hospital, he found her covered in blood, wrapped in a white shroud.

Since the start of the genocidal war in Gaza in October 2023, the education system has been completely disrupted. Hundreds of schools have been destroyed by the Israel forces, while the remaining ones have been converted into shelters for displaced families, leaving about 700,000 students without access to education.

Hundreds of thousands of children in Gaza have returned to in-person learning for the first time in nearly three years, striving to continue their education despite widespread devastation. Many are studying in damaged buildings or makeshift classrooms and tents, while uniforms, notebooks and pens remain unaffordable for many families.

The Ministry of Education, with support from international and local organisations, including UNICEF, pressed ahead with the 2026–2027 academic year, establishing dozens of temporary schools made of tents, tarpaulins, sheet metal and wood to accommodate pupils.

But these makeshift classrooms offer little protection from harsh weather and lack basic resources, while ongoing Israeli attacks continue to threaten students’ safety.

Some classrooms stand on sandy ground, with pupils crammed together on mattresses in front of a blackboard. Others remain occupied by dozens of displaced families, leaving children to pursue their education amid the ruins of their former schools.

“She was at an age when childhood should have been filled with learning, play and the simple joys of growing up, not the fear and loss that have come to define life for so many children in Gaza,” Misk’s mother told Quds News Network as she held her daughter’s doll, stained with her blood.

Her mother remembered her daughter as a beautiful, lively child, full of innocence and affection.

“She was a beautiful girl. My daughter Misk was a little soul, a cute and lovely girl, full of life,” she said.

Then came the words that captured the unbearable cruelty of her loss: “Israel, however, decided to end her life.”

“Misk was just a little girl who should have had years ahead of her, years to learn, play, grow and dream. Instead, Israel ended her life before she had the chance to experience much of what childhood should be,” Hazem al-Delou, Misk’s father, added.

On October 22, UNICEF confirmed that eight Palestinian children were killed in Israeli attacks and 20 others injured over six days in Gaza, including Misk.

Among the victims was 14-year-old Mohamed who was walking home from a UNICEF-supported learning centre on 17 October in Deir al-Balah when he was hit in the street by an armed Israeli drone strike and killed. His school bag was left lying beside his body.

Israeli forces have killed over 351 Palestinian children since the announcement of the so-called ceasefire in October 2025, UNICEF added.

“Children must be protected wherever they are. At home, while playing, walking to, or from, class, anywhere. They have suffered enough,” the UN’s children agency said.

“Gaza’s children are trying to recover their childhoods, to find some routine and stability in their young lives, which for too many have again been cut short. A ceasefire that does not protect children has failed them.”

Since the start of the Israeli genocidal war in October 2023, Israeli forces have killed at least 21,638 Palestinian children in Gaza, including more than 1,000 babies under the age of one, according to UN reports and the Palestinian Ministry of Health. This amounts to about 2% of all the children in Gaza.

Thousands of others are still missing underneath the rubble and presumed dead. Children, women and elderly people account for more than 55% of all those killed during the war, according to official Palestinian data.

A July independent United Nations Commission of Inquiry has found that Israeli forces continue to commit genocide against Palestinians by deliberately targeting children in the Gaza Strip.

In the report, the independent United Nations Commission of Inquiry — which last year concluded Israel had committed genocide in Gaza — said Israeli forces continue to commit genocide against Palestinians by deliberately targeting children in the Gaza Strip.

It said that Israeli assaults have continued causing “unprecedented death, injury and trauma” to Palestinian children.

In August, the United Nations children’s agency said at least 300 children have been killed in Gaza in the roughly 300 days since a so-called ceasefire was announced on October 10, 2025 – an average of one child a day.

Hundreds more have been wounded, many severely, UNICEF said in a statement. “A ceasefire that leaves an average of one child dead each and every day is failing children,” said Edouard Beigbeder, UNICEF regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“Children in Gaza are still waiting for the end to the violence they were promised.”

Palestinians in the war-torn enclave marked three years of Israel’s genocidal war, which has devastated vast areas of Gaza and shattered the lives of a population of around two million people.

This comes amid a fragile ceasefire that has been violated by Israel through attacks, killings, and aid restrictions.

More than 1,590 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the ceasefire in October 2025 in Israeli attacks.

This week, the Gaza’s Government Media Office said 5,989 violations of the ceasefire had been recorded since October 2025, adding that Israel is also restricting the entry of humanitarian aid.

Apartment buildings, markets, vehicles, and cafés have continued to come under Israeli attack. In some cases, families received displacement orders only minutes before their homes were bombed, while many others received no warning at all.

Israel also continues to occupy more and more land inside the Strip, with almost two-thirds of Gaza now under Israel’s military control.

Palestinians there are also experiencing an escalating food crisis as a result of ongoing Israeli crossing closures and reduced international funding for assistance.

Recently, ICC-wanted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel has no intention of withdrawing from territory occupied by its forces in Gaza, confirming that Israeli forces now control 60 percent of the enclave and threatening that “more is to come”. Netanyahu also rejected a proposal for advancing to the next stage of Trump’s so-called peace plan to end the genocide in Gaza after Hamas responded to it positively.