Education at risk in West Bank from Israel operation, funding cuts | News | Eco-Business

Children in Gaza had just begun to return to classes among bombed-out buildings when Israeli airstrikes resumed on March 18, shattering a weeks-long ceasefire.

Nearly half of the more than 400 people killed were children that day, one of the deadliest in the conflict, according to Palestinian officials cited by the UN

Palestinian health authorities have said Israel’s ground and air campaign in Gaza killed more than 46,600 people, with just over half of identified victims being women, children or older people.

“The ability for Palestinian children to access quality education in the West Bank or in Gaza has never been under more stress,” said Alexandra Saieh, global head of humanitarian policy and advocacy at Save the Children.

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It’s not just the US cuts. We’re looking at a broader reduction in funding to humanitarian assistance globally, and that’s what’s alarming.

Alexandra Saieh, global head of humanitarian policy and advocacy, Save the Children

Attacks on schools

Violence had been on the rise in the West Bank since the war in Gaza. Last year, 85 students were killed and 525 injured in Israeli military operations there, according to a report by the Occupied Palestinian Territory Education Cluster, which includes UN agencies.

Israel says the new operation, which has so far killed more than 30 Palestinians in the West Bank, is aimed at hitting Iranian-backed militant groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, that have established strongholds in the crowded townships that house descendants of Palestinians who fled from their homes in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

Constant fighting has paralysed movement, and more than 806,000 students found their access to education restricted in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 2024, the Education Cluster report said.

That year, the Palestinian ministry of education recorded more than 2,200 incidents of violence targeting the education system in the West Bank, according to the report.

These included attacks by armed settlers on schools and the detention of students or teachers. At least 109 schools were attacked or vandalised.

More than half of Palestinian students reported being delayed or harassed on their way to school, with many saying they had been physically assaulted.