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Scholasticide in Gaza means that there are almost no more schools or colleges

Scholasticide in Gaza means that there are almost no more schools or colleges

An early morning in last fall, I was woken up by the radio in the other room. My mother sat down and listened to the latest updates, as she does every day. But instead of the usual news or the latest orders of the Israeli army which asks people to leave their homes, or the names of the new victims of the actions of Israel in a brutal war, I heard the dizzy votes of young students Palestinians in the occupied West Bank interviewed at the start of the new school year.

Their words were filled with expectations and hope – the excitement of the prospect of seeing friends, the eagerness to learn new things, to meet new teachers. For them, the day marked the start of a new chapter in their educational journey.

As happy as I was for these students, however, hearing their voices deepened a feeling of pain in me. After all, I’ve been entering a classroom for the last time for 15 months. Because here in Gaza, the concept of a “regular school year” was stolen from us. Instead of waiting impatiently to learn and grow, we were trapped in a state of terror, a trip, hunger and an endless death.

The image can contain a car transport vehicle and an adult

The father of Esraa Sameer linked the personal effects of the family to their car before fleeing south of their home in the refugee camp of Al Nuiserat in early 2024.

Esraa Sameer

I live in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the center of Gaza. I was born in 2005 and, so far, I have already survived four Israeli military onslaughts and a paralyzing, illegal Headquarters and naval blockade which is almost as old as I am. These wars are no longer measured in days or months, but by the years when we spend far from school, far from ambition, far from normal life.

The most recent assault in Israel against Gaza, which was launched after Hamas attack On October 7, 2023, killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, with more than 14,000 others lacked and presumed dead and lead Almost the whole population of our houses. He has not only destroyed lives, houses and infrastructure; He crushed our dreams, our hopes and our studies. He devastated our education system, including my university, the Islamic University of Gaza and many educational centers, such as the Oxford English Center, where I had just enrolled in October 2023 before the breakup of war.