More than 17,000 children in Gaza have been killed since October 7, 2023 — most of them school-aged — in what has become not only a humanitarian catastrophe but also the destruction of an entire generation’s future. Education in Palestine, especially in the besieged Gaza Strip, has become a deliberate target, with countless schools reduced to rubble and learning environments rendered unsafe or inaccessible.

The assault has left nearly 800,000 students without classrooms, books, or teachers. What was once a place of safety and hope has become a graveyard of memories, where children’s laughter has been replaced by silence and grief. Hundreds of educational institutions have been bombed or completely destroyed, while surviving ones serve as overcrowded shelters for displaced families — themselves under constant threat.

This war has not only ended lives but has robbed thousands of children of their right to learn, dream, and grow. Yet, despite the trauma, many Palestinian children in Gaza continue to hold on to the idea that education remains their path to a better future. Virtual learning platforms and community-led initiatives attempt to fill the void, but the scale of devastation is overwhelming.

Palestinian children are not only casualties of bombs — they are victims of a war on knowledge, on dignity, and on the right to exist. Still, even in the ashes of their schools, their determination endures, standing as one of the last acts of defiance against a future being stolen from them.