School Kids in Gaza Grappling with Israeli War Trauma
Schools have opened their doors in the blockaded territory after a three-week delay due to the recent Israeli relentless and merciless aggression on Gaza. The children in the blockaded area who have survived the onslaught are in shock of the loss of their classmates and the extent of destruction in the area.
“I felt so bad when I saw my school destroyed. We used to study and play here. Nadia, my school mate, died [in the Israeli attacks] and we can’t play anymore,” a Palestinian school child told Press TV.
"This is our first day at school. It’s hard to describe the destruction,” another Palestinian child said.
"We were shocked when we heard about Nadia’s death. She was a remarkable student and very active," Nemal Jedi, a Palestinian teacher, said.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said on Saturday that thousands of school children in the Gaza Strip are unable to start the new academic year in the besieged territory as a result of the Israeli military offensive.
The relief and human development agency’s spokesman Adnan Abu Hasna said that around 9,600 students cannot attend school because Palestinian families, whose homes were destroyed during Israel’s latest war on the Gaza Strip, have come to seek refuge at three Gaza schools and refuse to leave those schools.
Israel started pounding the Gaza Strip in early July, inflicting heavy losses on the Palestinian land. Almost 2,140 Palestinians, mostly civilians, including women, children and elderly people, were killed in the Israeli onslaught. Around 11,000 others were injured.
Tel Aviv says 72 Israelis were killed in the conflict, but the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas says the number is much higher.
The latest Israeli war ended on August 26 with an Egyptian-brokered truce, which took effect after Cairo negotiations.
Palestinian experts say it costs more than $7.5 billion to rebuild the besieged Gaza Strip, ravaged during the recent Israeli onslaught. The Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction said on September 4 that the process would take “five years if Israel removed its blockade on Gaza entirely.”
