Nearly 90% of Gaza schools destroyed, UNRWA says
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- UNRWA says nearly 90 percent of Gaza Strip schools are damaged or destroyed, crippling education for hundreds of thousands of children.
- A January 2026 Cambridge-led analysis warns of “scholasticide” as schools are repeatedly targeted, with long-term psychological harm expected.
Nearly 90 percent of school buildings across the Gaza Strip have been damaged or destroyed during the war on Gaza, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees said Thursday.
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The scale of destruction has effectively paralyzed the education system, disrupting learning for hundreds of thousands of children amid a prolonged humanitarian emergency.
Schools turned into shelters
UNRWA said the few school buildings that remain intact have largely been converted into shelters for displaced families.
As a result, children are receiving education through temporary learning spaces run by UNRWA teams or through digital platforms. Access remains severely limited due to displacement, infrastructure damage, power shortages, and security risks.
Demolition of UNRWA facilities
On February 5, ‘Israeli’ occupational forces demolished an UNRWA school in Jabalia in northern Gaza using explosives, UNRWA said.
The building was the last remaining structure in a compound that once housed six schools. Since January, eight UNRWA schools in the so-called Yellow Line militarized areas have been demolished, according to the agency.
Cambridge analysis warns of “scholasticide”
A January 2026 report by the University of Cambridge’s Research for Equitable Access and Learning Centre, produced with the Centre for Lebanese Studies and based on UNRWA data, described the situation as a severe assault on Palestinian education.
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The assessment found that more than 91 percent of school buildings require full reconstruction or major rehabilitation. It documented 432 schools directly hit, with North Gaza and Rafah among the hardest-hit areas.
UN experts and the Cambridge analysis referred to the pattern of destruction as “scholasticide,” warning that systematic attacks on education threaten Palestinian cultural and national identity by undermining learning for future generations.
Humanitarian and psychological toll
The report said more than 18,000 Palestinian student martyrs and about 780 teachers had been killed in Gaza by late 2025, with thousands more injured.
It warned that the use of schools as shelters has made them unsafe and documented widespread psychological trauma. Nearly all children in Gaza are believed to require mental health support, with high levels of anxiety, depression, and distress expected to impair learning for years.
Limited positive development
Despite the devastation, UNRWA announced a limited positive step on February seven with the reopening of the Bureij Health Centre in the central Gaza Strip’s Middle Area.
The facility is providing primary healthcare, maternal services, immunizations, chronic disease care, laboratory testing, and dental services for displaced residents.
UNRWA and partner organizations say they continue to offer limited learning opportunities. Officials caution that the humanitarian crisis persists despite the October 2025 ceasefire, citing ongoing suffering, disease risks, and infrastructure collapse. Full recovery of Gaza’s education system, they warn, will take many years and substantial resources.
