According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), despite over 830,000 Palestinian boys and girls returning to schools in the occupied West Bank this week, thousands of students continue to face disruptions in their education.
In its statement, OCHA specified that among more than 4,000 students who returned to educational institutions, some were forced to leave refugee camps in the northern part of the West Bank and were not allowed to return.
Furthermore, education has been affected by the closure of six UNICEF (UNRWA) schools in occupied East Jerusalem at the order of Israeli authorities. In Area C of the West Bank, ten schools serving over 360 students remain abandoned after the communities they served were displaced due to frequent settler attacks and related access restrictions.
OCHA reported that another 84 schools are under threat of demolition or have a ban on further work, putting the continued education of nearly 13,000 students at risk.
