Generation Genocide: Israel has killed an entire school class of children every day in Gaza

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has warned of the scale of the humanitarian disaster facing children in the Gaza Strip amid Israel’s genocide that has been going on for more than nine months, noting that the average number of children killed every day is equivalent to “an entire school class”.

Sam Rose, director of UNRWA affairs in Gaza, said in a statement issued on Tuesday that “every day since October 7, 2023, an average equivalent to an entire classroom of children has been killed.” The number of students in each class in UNRWA schools ranges between 35 and 45, reflecting the enormity of the human losses among children alone.

This statement comes at a time when the latest data from the Gaza government media office indicates that more than 18,000 children have been killed since the start of the aggression, and about 16,854 children have been admitted to hospitals due to direct injuries. With the deterioration of the medical situation and the collapse of the health infrastructure in the sector, these numbers are likely to rise.

Schools turned into shelters… then into targets for Israel

Before Israel’s assault began, UNRWA schools were already overcrowded, with between 35 and 45 students per class. As the aggression intensified, hundreds of schools were turned into shelters for displaced persons, but many of them were not spared from Israeli shelling, resulting in hundreds of deaths and injuries inside them, including children and women.

UNRWA says that “children make up about half of Gaza’s population of 2.4 million, and their lives today are marked by war, destruction and deprivation of the most basic rights of childhood”.

The suffering of children is not limited to human losses, but extends to the grim daily reality they live in under the shadow of war. Israel’s repeated forced displacement has forced thousands of children to leave their homes and live in tents or crowded places that lack the basic necessities of life. One in 10 of them suffer from malnutrition, a lack of clean water, and the collapse of education and basic services, amid a suffocating siege and closure of crossings.

Israeli policy has also caused the deliberate destruction of food and water sources and deprived the sector of adequate humanitarian aid, exacerbating hunger and thirst, especially among children.

An ongoing war of extermination

For more than 21 months, Gaza has been living under the fire of an Israel assault widely described as “genocide.” International and UN calls for an end to the war and the opening of humanitarian corridors have been met with Israel’s continued military operations under security pretexts, amid international paralysis and the absence of any real accountability.

In light of this reality, warnings are growing about the long-term catastrophic psychological and health effects on an entire generation of Gaza’s children, who have grown up in an environment of fear, destruction, and deprivation, with no clear prospect of a secure future or a dignified life.

Featured image via the Canary