“We carry a bag of clothes instead of a school bag,” she told UN News.
Diana and other students shared their eagerness to get back in the classroom, speaking from schools that have been converted into shelters for Gaza’s displaced, where most of the 2.3 million Palestinian residents have been forced to move multiple times during the nearly two-year-long war sparked by the Hamas-led terror attacks and Israel’s subsequent offensive.
Nearly 660,000 children remain out of school, according to the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA. In one UNRWA school corridor now transformed into crowded living quarters, Diana explained her ordeal.
“We no longer play or learn,” said Diana, a child displaced with her family from the Shujaiya neighbourhood in Gaza City. “There is no education now. We live inside the school, where we are displaced, eating and sleeping.”
Searching for food instead of school supplies
Misk lost her father during the war. She said her tragedy was compounded by the loss of learning.
“Two years of our lives were wasted,” she said. “If it weren’t for the war, I would now be preparing for school, buying pens and school supplies. Now, we search for water and food, running after water and community kitchens.”
She fought back tears as she continued.
“We are children,” she said. “We want to live like other children. My father was killed in the war. What is my fault that I became an orphan at an early age? What is my fault that I was deprived of my family and everything?”
‘We were learning and getting diplomas’
Nine-year-old Jana said she wants to go back to studying.
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