School Supplies Enter Gaza Strip After Two Years of Israeli Blockade

JAKARTA - The United Nations children's agency said on Tuesday it had for the first time in two and a half years managed to send school supplies containing learning materials to the Gaza Strip after they were previously blocked by Israeli authorities.

Thousands of supplies, including pencils, exercise books and wooden cubes to play with, have now entered the area, UNICEF said.

"In recent days, we have received thousands of recreational supplies, hundreds of school supplies in boxes. We are considering receiving another 2,500 school supplies in the next week, as it has been approved," said UNICEF spokesman James Elder, launching Al Arabiya from Reuters (28/1).

"Children in Gaza are facing an unprecedented assault on their education system, as well as restrictions on the entry of some relief materials, including school books and pencils, which means teachers have to economize on limited resources, while children try to study at night in tents without lighting," Elder said.

Meanwhile, COGAT, the Israeli military body that oversees the flow of aid into the Gaza Strip, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

During the conflict, some children are completely deprived of education, facing fundamental challenges such as finding water, as well as widespread malnutrition, amid a major humanitarian crisis.

"This has been a long two years for children and for organizations like UNICEF to try to do education without these materials. It seems we are finally seeing real change," Elder said.

UNICEF is scaling up its education programme to support half of school-age children - around 336,000 children - with learning support.

"Most of the teaching will be done in tents," Elder said, due to widespread damage to school buildings in the area during the war sparked by Hamas's offensive against Israel in October 2023.

At least 97 percent of schools were damaged, according to the latest satellite assessment by the United Nations in July.

Israel has previously accused Hamas and other militant groups of systematically infiltrating civilian areas and buildings, including schools, and using civilians as human shields.

Elder said most of the learning spaces supported by UNICEF will be in the central and southern parts of the region, as it is still difficult to operate in the north, which was partially destroyed in the last months of the conflict.

It is known that the attack by Palestinian militants led by Hamas in October 2023 killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli calculations.

The retaliatory attacks, which later became the Israeli military operation in Gaza, killed 71,662 people and injured 171,428, according to the Palestinian media WAFA Tuesday.

Since the ceasefire agreed to on October 10, at least 488 people have been killed and 1,350 others injured.

Meanwhile, according to official data, UNICEF stated that more than 20,000 children were reported dead, including 110 children since the ceasefire on October 10 last year.