One-Year Anniversary Statement on the Hostilities in Gaza by Education Cannot Wait Director Yasmine Sherif

NEW YORK, Oct. 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today with broken hearts, we mark the one-year anniversary since the implosion of Gaza on 7 October 2023. Today we honor the hostages, the arbitrarily detained and the more than 40,000 innocent civilians who have reportedly been killed in this brutal carnage, and the countless others that have been disabled and all who have been traumatized for life.

We join the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres in calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, Lebanon and beyond. The Middle East has become a battlefield where thousands of years of culture have been destroyed and millions of lives killed. May there be peace and justice, human security and national security for all the peoples of the Middle East.

Today, with resolve and determination we call on world leaders to join us in providing access to life-saving quality education for the innocent girls and boys impacted by the carnage ripping the region apart. Education is our single best investment in opening the hearts and minds to prevent further destruction and foster peacebuilding and respect for international law.

According to UNICEF, the Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child today, where thousands of innocent children have been killed, thousands more horrifically injured, and an untold number buried beneath rubble. This attack on children is unconscionable.

The conflict continues to take a dramatic toll on Gaza's students, teachers, schools and communities. As the school year begins, at least 45,000 children who would have entered the first grade in Gaza are again being denied their education. They join the 625,000 school-aged children in Gaza who have already been denied an entire school year.

In both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, attacks hitting schools have increased in recent weeks. In the Gaza Strip, according to UNRWA, the "education system has been decimated." The escalation into Lebanon has put countless more students and teachers at risk.

The relentless crisis in Gaza has set children's education "back by up to five years and risks creating a lost generation of permanently traumatized Palestinian youth," according to a new study by the University of Cambridge, the Centre for Lebanese Studies and UNRWA.

There must be an immediate ceasefire. There must be a respect for international humanitarian and human rights law. We must find a solution to return all hostages, stop bombing civilian targets and reach a peaceful and fair political solution. Only then can we ensure safety, protection and hope in the classroom, and a revival of a region with a long history of education and learning. Because it was here that much of our science, arts and discoveries were once made to serve all of us.

In the State of Palestine, ECW and our strategic partners have provided over US$36 million in funding to improve learning conditions, support mental health and well-being for children and teachers, strengthen school infrastructure, provide vocational training, recruit and train teachers and counsellors, and build the systems and supports needed to return the girls and boys of Palestine to learning. In all, these supports have reached nearly 1  million girls and boys.

According to OCHA's Flash Appeal Financial Tracking, only 49% of the US$3.4 billion humanitarian appeal has been funded to date. Of this, only US$55 million of the US$175 million appeal for education has been met. Together with UN partners, civil society and communities on the ground, ECW and its strategic partners are working tirelessly to catalyze new and additional funding for girls and boys impacted by this brutal conflict.

Our investment in their education is our investment in a better tomorrow for all of humanity – with no discrimination as to race, ethnicity, religion or other distinction. We are all one human family and the only race we need to win is not that of arms or power. A profoundly good quality education inspires and empowers us to win the human race.