Fear of ‘lost generation’ as Gaza school year begins with all classes shut

Children write in notebooks by the rubble of destroyed buildings near a tent being used as a make-shift educational center for primary education students in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on September 8, 2024. (AFP)
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Children write in notebooks by the rubble of destroyed buildings near a tent being used as a make-shift educational center for primary education students in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on September 8, 2024. (AFP)
Children attend a class in a tent being used as a make-shift educational center for primary education students in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on September 8, 2024. (AFP)
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Children attend a class in a tent being used as a make-shift educational center for primary education students in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on September 8, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 09 September 2024
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Fear of ‘lost generation’ as Gaza school year begins with all classes shut

Children write in notebooks by the rubble of destroyed buildings near a tent being used as a make-shift educational center.
  • As fighting continued, Israel announced new orders to residents of the north Gaza Strip to leave their homes, in response to rockets fired into Israel

CAIRO: The new school year in the Palestinian territories officially began on Monday, with all schools in Gaza shut after 11 months of war and no sign of a ceasefire.
As fighting continued, Israel announced new orders to residents of the north Gaza Strip to leave their homes, in response to rockets fired into Israel.
Umm Zaki’s son Moataz, 15, was supposed to begin 10th grade. Instead he woke up in their tent in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza and was sent to fetch a container of water from more than a kilometer away.
“Usually, such a day would be a day of celebration, seeing the children in the new uniform, going to school, and dreaming of becoming doctors and engineers. Today all we hope is that the war ends before we lose any of them,” the mother of five told Reuters by text message.
The Palestinian Education Ministry said all Gaza schools were shut and 90 percent of them had been destroyed or damaged in Israel’s assault on the territory, launched after Hamas gunmen attacked Israeli towns in October last year.
The UN Palestinian aid agency UNRWA, which runs around half of Gaza’s schools, has turned as many of them as it can into emergency shelters housing thousands of displaced families.
“The longer the children stay out of school the more difficult it is for them to catch up on their lost learning and the more prone they are to becoming a lost generation, falling prey to exploitation including child marriage, child labor, and recruitment into armed groups,” UNRWA Director of Communications Juliette Touma told Reuters.
In addition to the 625,000 Gazans already registered for school who would be missing classes, another 58,000 six-year-olds should have registered to start first grade this year, the education ministry said.
Last month, UNRWA launched a back-to-learning program in 45 of its shelters, with teachers setting up games, drama, arts, music and sports activities to help with children’s mental health.
“The specified area has been warned”
Nearly all of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been forced from their homes at least once, and some have had to flee as many as 10 times.
In the latest evacuation order, Israel told residents of an area in the northern Gaza Strip they must leave their homes, following the firing of rockets into southern Israel the previous day.
“To all those in the specified area. Terrorist organizations are once again firing rockets at the State of Israel and carrying out terrorist acts from this area. The specified area has been warned many times in the past. The specified area is considered a dangerous combat zone,” an Israeli military spokesperson said in Arabic on X.
The United Nations urged Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip to attend medical facilities to get children under the age of 10 years old vaccinated against polio. Limited pauses in fighting have been held to allow the vaccination campaign, which aims to reach 640,000 children in Gaza after the territory’s first polio case in around 25 years.
UN officials said the campaign in the southern and central Gaza Strip had so far reached more than half of the children there needing the drops. A second round of vaccination will be required four weeks after the first.
Later on Monday, Touma said 450,000 of the children targeted with the campaign were vaccinated.
“Tuesday is the hardest part when we roll out the campaign in the north. Hopefully, that will work so we complete the first stage of the campaign The second and final stage is planned for the end of the month when we have to do all of this all over again,” said Touma.
Health officials said on Monday two separate Israeli airstrikes had killed seven people in central Gaza, while another strike killed one man in Khan Younis further south.
The armed wings of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad said they fought against Israeli forces in several areas across the Gaza Strip with anti-tank rockets and mortar fire.
The Israeli military said forces continued to dismantle military infrastructure and killed dozens of militants in the past days, including senior Hamas and Islamic Jihad commanders.
The war was triggered on Oct. 7 when the Hamas group that ran Gaza attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza has killed more than 40,900 Palestinians, according to the enclave’s health ministry.
The two warring sides each blame the other for the failure so far to reach a ceasefire that would end the fighting and see the release of hostages.


UN peacekeepers in Lebanon stay put, despite Israel asking them to move

UN peacekeepers in Lebanon stay put, despite Israel asking them to move
Updated 24 sec ago
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UN peacekeepers in Lebanon stay put, despite Israel asking them to move

UN peacekeepers in Lebanon stay put, despite Israel asking them to move
  • UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix: “The parties have an obligation to respect the safety of and security of peacekeepers, and I want to insist on that”
  • UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, operates between the Litani River in the north and the Blue Line in the south

UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix: “The parties have an obligation to respect the safety of and security of peacekeepers, and I want to insist on that.”

UNITED NATIONS: United Nations peacekeepers in southern Lebanon remain in place — despite Israel asking them to move — and provide the only communications link between the countries’ militaries, the UN peacekeeping chief said on Thursday.
“Peacekeepers continue to do their best to implement their Security Council mandate in obviously very difficult conditions,” UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix told reporters, adding that contingency plans were ready for both good and bad outcomes.
The mission, known as UNIFIL, is mandated by the Security Council to help the Lebanese army keep the area free of weapons and armed personnel other than those of the Lebanese state. That has sparked friction with Iran-backed Hezbollah, which effectively controls southern Lebanon.
The Israeli military asked UN peacekeepers earlier this week to prepare to relocate more than 5 km (3 miles) from the border between Israel and Lebanon — known as the Blue Line — “as soon as possible, in order to maintain your safety,” according to an excerpt from the message, seen by Reuters.
“The peacekeepers are currently staying in their position, all of them,” Lacroix told reporters. “The parties have an obligation to respect the safety of and security of peacekeepers, and I want to insist on that.”
Lacroix said UNIFIL was continuing to liaise with both countries, describing the mission as “the only channel of communication” between them. The mission was working to protect civilians and support the safe movement of civilians and delivery of humanitarian aid.
The UN peacekeepers operate between the Litani River in the north and the Blue Line in the south. The mission has more than 10,000 troops from 50 countries and about 800 civilian staff, according to its website.
Israel’s military told residents of more than 20 towns in south Lebanon to evacuate their homes immediately on Thursday as it pressed on with its cross-border incursion and struck Hezbollah targets in a suburb of Beirut.


Palestinian health ministry says 16 killed in Israeli strike on West Bank

Palestinian health ministry says 16 killed in Israeli strike on West Bank
Updated 27 min ago
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Palestinian health ministry says 16 killed in Israeli strike on West Bank

Palestinian health ministry says 16 killed in Israeli strike on West Bank

RAMALLAH: At least 16 people were killed in the West Bank refugee camp of Tulkarm, the Palestinian health ministry said late Thursday, following an Israeli air strike in the area.
“Sixteen martyrs following the bombing of the Tulkarm camp by the occupation,” the Palestinian health ministry said on its Telegram account.
The Israeli army confirmed the strike on the town in the northern West Bank, describing it as a joint operation carried out by the Shin Bet internal security service and the air force, according to a brief statement by the military.
Reached by telephone, camp official Faisal Salama told AFP that the attack had been carried out by an F-16 fighter.
A resident from the area said the Israeli plane had “hit a cafeteria in a three-story building.”
“There are many victims in the hospital,” the resident added, saying the toll would likely rise.
Violence in the West Bank has surged alongside the war in Gaza which began after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.
Since the Hamas attack, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 699 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
At least 24 Israelis, including members of the security forces, have been killed in Palestinian militant attacks during the same period, Israeli officials say.
Major Israeli operations in the West Bank are sometimes occurring “at a scale not witnessed in the last two decades,” United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk said last month.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and its forces regularly make incursions into Palestinian communities, but the current raids as well as comments by Israeli officials mark an escalation, residents say.


G7 voices ‘deep concern’ over ‘deteriorating situation’ in Mideast

G7 voices ‘deep concern’ over ‘deteriorating situation’ in Mideast
Updated 49 min 37 sec ago
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G7 voices ‘deep concern’ over ‘deteriorating situation’ in Mideast

G7 voices ‘deep concern’ over ‘deteriorating situation’ in Mideast

LONDON: Leaders of the G7 countries on Thursday voiced concern over the “deteriorating situation” in the Middle East while warning against further “uncontrollable escalation” in the region.

G7 leaders “express deep concern over the deteriorating situation in the Middle East and condemn in the strongest terms Iran’s direct military attack against Israel,” they said in a statement.

They warned that the “dangerous cycle of attacks and retaliation risks fueling uncontrollable escalation... which is in no one’s interest.”

The statement said G7 leaders had discussed “coordinated efforts and actions” to avoid further escalation of conflict in the region, without specifying details.

“We also reiterate our call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the unconditional release of all hostages, a significant and sustained increase in the flow of humanitarian assistance, and an end to the conflict,” it said.


Yazidi woman, 21, freed from Gaza in US-led operation

Yazidi woman, 21, freed from Gaza in US-led operation
Updated 03 October 2024
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Yazidi woman, 21, freed from Gaza in US-led operation

Yazidi woman, 21, freed from Gaza in US-led operation
  • She ‘was in good physical condition but was traumatized by dire humanitarian situation in Gaza’

A 21-year-old woman kidnapped by Daesh in Iraq more than a decade ago was freed from Gaza this week in an operation led by the US and involving Jordan and the Baghdad government, Iraqi and US officials said.

The woman is a member of the ancient Yazidi religious minority mostly found in Iraq and Syria, which saw more than 5,000 members killed and thousands more kidnapped in a 2014 campaign that the UN has said constituted genocide.

She was freed after more than four months of efforts that involved several attempts that failed due to the difficult security situation resulting from Israel’s offensive in Gaza, said Silwan Sinjaree, chief of staff of Iraq’s foreign minister.

Officials did not provide details of how she was eventually freed, and Jordanian and US Embassy officials in Baghdad did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Reuters could not reach the woman directly for comment.

A State Department spokesperson said the US on Oct. 1 “helped to safely evacuate from Gaza, a young Yezidi woman to be reunited with her family in Iraq.”

The spokesperson said she was kidnapped from her home in Iraq, aged 11, and sold and trafficked to Gaza.  Her captor was recently killed, allowing her to escape and seek repatriation, the spokesperson said.

Sinjaree said she was in good physical condition but was traumatized by her time in captivity and by the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza. 

She had since been reunited with family in northern Iraq, he added.

The Yazidi nightmare
Ten years after the genocide, their torment continues
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More than 6,000 Yazidis were captured by Daesh from the native Sinjar region in Iraq in 2014, with many sold into sexual slavery or trained as child soldiers and taken across borders, including to Turkiye and Syria.

Over the years, more than 3,500 have been rescued or freed, according to Iraqi authorities, with some 2,600 still missing.

Many are feared dead but Yazidi activists say they believe hundreds are still alive.


Civilians bear brunt in ‘catastrophic’ Lebanon conflict, UN official says

Civilians bear brunt in ‘catastrophic’ Lebanon conflict, UN official says
Updated 03 October 2024
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Civilians bear brunt in ‘catastrophic’ Lebanon conflict, UN official says

Civilians bear brunt in ‘catastrophic’ Lebanon conflict, UN official says
  • Imran Riza, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, said the pace of displacement since Sept. 23 had exceeded worst case scenarios
  • “The level of trauma, the level of fear among the population, has been extreme,” he said

BEIRUT: Civilians are bearing the brunt of a “truly catastrophic” situation in Lebanon, a senior UN official said, urging respect for the rules of war nearly two weeks since Israel launched a major offensive against the armed group Hezbollah.
With around 1 million people in Lebanon impacted, Imran Riza, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, said the pace of displacement since Sept. 23 had exceeded worst case scenarios, and too much damage was being done to civilian infrastructure.
“What we saw from Sept. 23 on is truly catastrophic,” Riza said in an interview with Reuters on Thursday. He was referring to the day when Israel dramatically ramped up airstrikes in Lebanon, killing more than 500 people in a single day, according to Lebanese government figures.
“The level of trauma, the level of fear among the population, has been extreme,” he said.
Israel says its campaign against the heavily armed, Iran-backed Hezbollah aims to secure the return home of Israelis evacuated from areas near the Lebanese border as a result of nearly a year of Hezbollah fire into northern Israel.
The Lebanese government says around 1.2 million people have been displaced by Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, the southern suburbs of Beirut and other parts of the country. Some have been killed in Israeli strikes after having been displaced.
“You’ve got people being displaced from one place to another, thinking they were going to a safe place, and then that being struck,” Riza said.
Riza said 97 medical and emergency workers had been killed — the majority of them in the last 10 days. There has been too much damage to civilian infrastructure, and civilians have been “bearing the great brunt of what’s been going on,” he said.
He noted that international humanitarian law requires that humanitarians be allowed to access people in need, and that civilian infrastructure and water systems be protected.
“This is what we call for when we’re saying respect the rules of war in this,” he said. “Unfortunately, we are seeing a situation where we have to go back to everybody and advocate for these basics in terms of protecting civilians.”
The conflict began a nearly a year ago when Hezbollah opened fire in solidarity with its Palestinian ally Hamas, at the start of the Gaza war. It marks the worst conflict since Hezbollah fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006.
Riza and Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Tuesday launched a $426 million appeal to mobilize resources for civilians affected by the conflict.
Lebanon was already suffering myriad crises before this conflict began.
As a result, Riza said Lebanon was less well placed to deal with conflict now than in 2006: “People don’t have buffers the way they had in 2006, on the other hand the institutions that are there to help them are much weaker.”