On October 23, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Begebard, said after returning to Jerusalem from the Gaza Strip that a large number of school-age children were unable to get proper education because of the war-torn education system in the Gaza Strip.

UNICEF¡¯s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Bergbert, said the situation in Gaza¡¯s education system is catastrophic, with 85% of schools currently destroyed or unavailable. Among the schools still available, many are used as shelters for displaced people, while a large number of children and teachers are also facing displacement.

UNICEF Regional Director of the Middle East and North Africa:The state of education in Gaza is disastrous, the education system has been destroyed, and children have not gone to school for more than two years. It is impossible to imagine that much of the territory in Gaza has been completely ravaged or destroyed, only the remaining pieces of stars are still there, and the number of children who have nothing to do on the streets is also shocking.

Following the first phase of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, the UNICEF and other organizations have managed to send about one-sixth of school-age children in Gaza to temporary learning centers, but Bergbard said that temporary learning centers built of plastic clothes and tent clothes face a serious material shortage and sometimes can only use chairs, cardboard boxes or wooden boards to write on recycled stone or plastic boards.

UNICEF Regional Director of the Middle East and North Africa:Food means survival, education means hope.The people in Gaza today need hope, not just food.