Across the world, the new academic year is marked by sharpened pencils, fresh textbooks and the buzz of classrooms. In Gaza, silence hangs heavy over the ruins where schools once stood, replaced by the sound of shelling and the grief of families mourning their children. For the third consecutive year, more than 660,000 children are denied their most basic right: the chance to learn.

What were once schools have now become shelters for the displaced, or piles of rubble scattered across bombed neighbourhoods. According to the Ministry of Education, nearly all educational facilities have been damaged or destroyed since last October, leaving children not only without classrooms but without safe spaces. In place of blackboards and lessons, families now face loss, trauma and the crushing reality that an entire generation risks being erased. Safa News Agency has reported on the widespread devastation, noting that teachers, students and entire schools have been wiped out in airstrikes.

Behind the numbers lie broken dreams. Teenagers who once dreamed of university, young children waiting for their first day of school, and teachers hoping to guide them, have been silenced by relentless bombardment. Psychologists warn that the absence of education deepens the trauma: children grow up in fear, without structure, stability, or hope. Education is not only about lessons; it is about dignity, identity, and the promise of a future. The destruction of Gaza’s schools is not just a physical loss, it is an assault on the very possibility of tomorrow.