The impact of the disproportionate attacks on Gaza and its civilian population will have significant consequences on all, most importantly on children. Since 7 October 2023, over 28,775 Palestinians have been killed, 68,552 injured, and more than 1.9 million people internally displaced, more than half of whom are children. There are more than two million people in need of urgent, life-saving humanitarian aid and care. The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, has described Gaza as “a graveyard for children” detailing the clear violations of International Humanitarian Law being committed. UNICEF has described Gaza as the most dangerous place in the world to be a child, stressing that this is a war on children.

Education Above All Foundation calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities between all parties involved in violence in the occupied Palestinian territories. Killing, abductions, the deliberate deprivation of food and medicine, bombing schools and hospitals all constitute grave violations against children and, if deliberate, constitute war crimes.

Education Above All Foundation is committed to protecting children in conflict affected areas and calls on the international community to comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law, international human rights law, and to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations, respectively, to do their utmost to ensure an immediate ceasefire. These steps are absolutely vital to have any realistic prospects of preventing an entire generation being deprived of their right to education, which will have detrimental and long-lasting consequences for the nation long after the conflict.