More than 20,000 Palestinian students were killed and over 31,000 injured in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip and West Bank since October 2023, official figures showed on Tuesday.
In a statement, the Palestinian Education Ministry said that 19,910 students in Gaza and 148 others in the occupied West Bank lost their lives in attacks by the Israeli army.
Israeli army fire also injured 30,097 students in Gaza and 1,042 others in the West Bank, it added.
According to the ministry, 1,037 teachers and school administrative staff were killed, 4,740 others injured, and more than 228 detained in both areas since the start of the Israeli war in Gaza in October 2023 according to Anadolu.
The ministry said Israeli attacks completely destroyed 179 schools and 63 university buildings in Gaza, and partially damaged 118 governmental schools and 100 UN-run schools.
Data also showed that 30 schools were completely removed from the official register of the ministry, including the students and the teachers.
In the West Bank, two schools were fully destroyed in Hebron and Tubas, and eight university buildings were partially damaged in repeated Israeli raids, the ministry said.
Since October 2023, the Israeli genocidal war has killed over 68,200 people and injured more than 170,300 in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
The occupied West Bank also witnessed a sharp rise in attacks over the same period, with at least 1,056 Palestinians killed, around 10,300 injured, and more than 20,000, including 1,600 children, detained, according to official Palestinian figures.
The UN on Monday said it was encouraged by renewed Gaza ceasefire commitments, warning that recent violence risked undermining fragile progress, as recovery efforts – including a large-scale rubble removal project – slowly gain momentum across the war-ravaged enclave.
“We are encouraged that the parties have reaffirmed their commitments to implementing the ceasefire in Gaza and commend the steadfast efforts of the mediators,” said UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric at the regular news briefing in New York.
“We do, however, remain concerned by all acts of violence in Gaza and the reported attacks and strikes that took place yesterday.”
Mr. Dujarric urged all sides to honour their obligations and avoid any action that could lead to renewed hostilities, reiterating the Secretary-General’s call for the release of the remains of all deceased hostages.
Over the weekend, Humanitarian Affairs chief Tom Fletcher wrapped up a visit to Gaza, where he met aid workers and inspected UN-supported projects, including a child nutrition centre, a hospital and a road clearance operation.
Debris removal underway
In Gaza City, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) has begun a major debris removal operation – the first phase of a comprehensive debris management plan aimed at restoring access to essential services such as hospitals and schools.
“Rubble represents a major challenge in Gaza, where the estimated amount is between 55 and 60 million tonnes,” said Jaco Cilliers, UNDP Representative in Palestine.
The UN agency taking the vital first step by clearing roads and recycling materials to pave new access routes and temporary facilities.
Dozens of diggers and other vehicles have been deployed along Al-Jalaa Street, where UNDP says it is working around the clock to open roads that have been blocked for months.
“This is a very arduous process and will take many years to complete,” Mr. Cilliers cautioned.
Aid crossings open
UN humanitarians also reported progress in aid delivery under the ceasefire, with the UN agency assisting Palestine refugees (UNRWA) expanding temporary learning spaces and partners resuming food parcel distributions in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis.
“Over the weekend, we along with our partners continued to collect aid from the Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem and Kissufim crossings. This included post-partum and hygiene kits, medical supplies, fuel, water and food,” Mr. Dujarric said.
He added that on Sunday, for the first time, Israeli authorities allowed the UN to deploy monitors at the Kissufim crossing.
“This is of course a welcome development, as it provides us with much-needed visibility into that segment of the pipeline,” Mr. Dujarric added according to UN News.
Euro-Med Monitor condemns Israel’s systematic destruction of projects, infrastructure, and housing units built with full or partial funding from the European Commission and EU member states, whether through Palestinian civil society organisations or UN agencies, particularly the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), during Israel’s two-year genocide in the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s systematic destruction targets not only physical assets but also vital systems that ensure basic rights to water, health, education, and adequate housing. Such targeting constitutes a flagrant violation of Israel’s obligations as an occupying power under international humanitarian law.
Initial damage documented by the Euro-Med Monitor team includes water desalination facilities, hospitals, clinics, health centres, schools, and housing units constructed under EU-funded reconstruction programmes.
The disruption of desalination facilities and water and sanitation networks directly violates individuals’ right to safe water and sanitation. The destruction of schools deprives children of their right to education. Meanwhile, the demolition of homes has left thousands of families homeless and forcibly displaced.
The most notable examples include severe damage to a desalination facility in the northern Gaza Strip, built with European Union funding through UNICEF’s water programmes, and another facility in Deir al-Balah, established under the EU’s Water Programme for the Palestinian Territories (Union for the Mediterranean initiative) and implemented by UNICEF.
UN reports indicate that the vast majority of schools in the Gaza Strip have been damaged or rendered inoperative, including UNRWA schools, which receive substantial funding from the European Union and are among the most severely affected facilities.
The EU has long funded Gaza’s water and sanitation sectors, including the central desalination programme, short-term low-volume (STLV) units, and connection and distribution works. Subsequent assessments show that water and sanitation assets, such as coastal wells, transmission lines, reservoirs, and pumping stations, have sustained extensive damage, directly affecting EU-funded projects in this vital sector.
These deliberate attacks cause immense human suffering and constitute direct targeting of civilian infrastructure protected under the Geneva Conventions and the principles of international and humanitarian law.
The EU’s reluctance to take decisive action to stop Israel’s two-year genocide in the Gaza Strip, coupled with its reliance on rhetorical measures, has emboldened Israel to intensify practices that erode any basis for peace and justice. This occurs as Europe remains Israel’s main trading partner and key supplier of weapons, while also serving as the primary market for Israeli arms exports.
Through their actions and inaction, European governments continue to provide political and legal cover for Israel’s violations, despite official assessments, reports, and public statements by European officials acknowledging serious and systematic breaches of international humanitarian law, some amounting to genocide.
The EU’s continued silence on Israel’s policies reflects a disregard for the legal, political, and moral obligations it has long affirmed in its official statements. Under Article 2 of the EU–Israel Association Agreement, respect for human rights is a fundamental condition of bilateral relations.
Although internal European reviews have repeatedly found strong and clear evidence of serious violations of international humanitarian law by Israel, neither the European Commission, the Council, nor the Parliament has activated any available corrective mechanisms, such as suspending trade privileges, freezing cooperation frameworks, or triggering the dispute resolution mechanism. Maintaining relations in this manner effectively enables Israeli violations and constitutes a clear breach of the legal and moral obligations set out in the EU’s own contractual framework.
This European failure to use available pressure tools sends a dangerous message: the destruction of European-funded assets and the terrorising of civilians can continue without political or legal consequence. It undermines the EU’s credibility and weakens its claim to uphold a rules-based international order.
Israel must be required to provide full financial compensation for every European-funded project destroyed or damaged, including replacement and temporary operating costs. An official European investigation should be launched, with a detailed public report published on the losses of EU-funded assets in Gaza and the identification of those responsible. Euro-Med Monitor also calls for the prosecution of civilian and military officials involved in issuing or executing such orders before the competent authorities, and for full support of relevant international legal proceedings.
Compensation in this context is not merely a financial assessment of losses; it signifies acknowledgement of responsibility for internationally unlawful acts and a crucial step toward restoring Palestinians’ access to essential services crippled by repeated bombing, bulldozing, and targeting.
The EU must compel Israel to provide full and immediate compensation for all damage to projects and infrastructure financed by European public funds, whether directly through the Commission and member states or indirectly through UNRWA, UN agencies, and partner organisations.
Furthermore, the EU must move immediately from moral condemnation to concrete action by activating available enforcement tools, foremost among them suspending the partnership agreement with Israel and supporting international and European investigations to ensure the prosecution of those responsible for targeting protected civilian property and obstructing humanitarian aid.
Euro-Med Monitor stresses the need to maintain investment in Palestinian development and avoid punishing the population by cutting relief and service programmes under the pretext of potential destruction, as this effectively punishes victims twice. Efforts should instead focus on holding the aggressor accountable through comprehensive economic, political, and legal pressure, rather than reducing support for essential civilian infrastructure.
Urgent funding is needed for early recovery and rehabilitation programmes in key sectors, particularly water, health, education, and housing, with priority given to projects that ensure service sustainability and the protection of related facilities.
Around $70 billion will be needed to reconstruct Gaza and make it safe after two years of war, UN development experts said on Tuesday, while aid agencies reported that far too little aid is getting in to meet the needs of desperate Palestinians.
At just 41 kilometres long (25.4 miles) and two to five kilometres wide (1.2 to 3.1 miles), few places in the Gaza Strip had been left unscathed by the constant Israeli bombardment before the latest ceasefire came into effect haltingly last Friday.
According to the UN Development Programme Special Representative for the Palestinians, Jaco Cilliers, destruction across the enclave “is now in the region of 84 per cent. In certain parts of Gaza, like in Gaza City, it’s even up to 92 per cent.”
$20 billion needed now
Speaking from Jerusalem, the UNDP’s Mr. Cilliers highlighted the findings of the latest Interim Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (IRDNA) on Gaza by the UN, the European Union and the World Bank, which estimated the damage at $70 billion.
To kickstart the massive operation, some $20 billion will be required in the next three years alone, he told journalists in Geneva.
The UN development agency is present in Gaza alongside humanitarian partners to provide immediate support to the enclave’s 2.1 million people.
This includes providing clean water, emergency employment, medical supplies, solid waste removal and making homes and public spaces safe by clearing rubble potentially hiding unexploded ordnance or the many thousands of missing Palestinians.
“We’ve already removed about 81,000 tonnes. That is about…3,100 truckloads,” Mr. Cilliers explained. “The majority of the debris removal is to provide access to humanitarian actors so that they can provide the much-needed aid and support to the people in Gaza. But we also help with hospitals and other social services that need to be cleared of debris.”
The UNDP official pointed to “very good indications” from potential donors in support of reconstruction from Arab States, but also from European nations and the United States “which has also indicated that they are going to be coming in supporting some of the early recovery efforts”.
Immediate aid essential
Important as reconstruction is for Gaza’s long-term future, UN humanitarians once again clamoured for the Israeli authorities to open all access points into Gaza, after the remaining 20 living Israeli hostages were freed on Monday and Palestinian prisoners were released from Israel.
The development followed the signing of a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel signed on Monday evening in Sharm El-Sheikh by US President Donald Trump, and the leaders of Egypt, Qatar and Turkïye.
Earlier on Monday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres welcomed the release of all living hostages from Gaza, two years since they were among some 250 taken during Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel on 7 October 2023.
Gaza City testimony
Speaking to UN News from Gaza, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) aid worker Tess Ingram described the story of one family displaced five times by the war:
“I met a family today, Mustafa and Syeda and their children, and they told me that they were among the lucky ones because while Mustafa was pulling rubble out from the building, that is their home, at least he said, we have a home.”
The family was relieved on Monday at the appearance of a water truck, Ms. Imgram told us: “But they live in fear that truck might not turn up today or tomorrow. She also can’t get the medicine she needs and her sons had to walk a really long way today just to buy the basics that she needed to make some bread.
“Families need absolutely everything right now. We need the hundreds of trucks a day that were promised to get into the Gaza Strip.”
On Tuesday, the focus shifted to the transfer from Gaza of all deceased hostages, an extremely difficult process overseen by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). It remains unclear how many deceased hostages will be transferred by Hamas.
“When it comes to the living hostages or Palestinian detainees – and believe me that’s a big issue for us – we actually don’t know, we know that we have to be ready,” said ICRC spokesperson Christian Cardon, adding that the complex search is getting underway today.
In the meantime, needs in Gaza remain enormous and “fluid”, aid teams report, with more than 300,000 Palestinians heading north to Gaza City since Friday, as the ceasefire agreement seemed to hold.
“The enthusiasm that came from the international community, from people on the ground that this was the beginning of the end of all the suffering and things would change rapidly, is just not being reflected on the ground, day in and day out. We are not getting enough aid in,” said UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson Ricardo Pires.
The Israeli authorities have agreed to allow 190,000 tonnes of relief supplies into Gaza and UN agencies and their partners are scaling up operations rapidly, but a far greater amount is needed overall, humanitarian agencies including the UN aid office, OCHA, have said repeatedly.
“Of course, we are advocating with everyone, and we were there in Sharm El- Sheikh yesterday as well, with 22 heads of state of government, who we are asking to help us push all buttons you can to get this up and running as soon as possible,” said OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke.
Aid hub carnage
Aid teams continue to insist that there needs to be a move away from handing out lifesaving supplies from remote areas including non-UN aid hubs that are difficult to reach and where hundreds of Palestinians have been shot or injured.
“Most of the actors – ICRC included – were not able to organize sufficient distribution of aid inside Gaza,” said Mr. Cardon. “And what we’ve seen instead, it’s people coming back from distribution sites being wounded, if not killed, in many instances…It’s about aid coming to the people and not any more people going to the aid,” as reported by UN News.
Gaza’s Interior Ministry and affiliated security forces have launched a large-scale campaign aimed at restoring order and stability across the Gaza Strip, following weeks of clashes between armed groups and reports of criminal activity in several neighborhoods of Gaza City.
According to a statement released by the Hamas-affiliated Radaa security force, the campaign “conducted a precise operation in the center of Gaza City, resulting in the neutralization of several wanted individuals and outlaws.”
The group said in the statement it has taken control of several positions in Gaza City and “conducted sweeps and arrests of individuals who participated in shootings, the killing of displaced persons, and attacks on civilians.”
Radaa added that the operation was part of “wide-ranging security measures” aimed at “arresting a large number of collaborators and individuals operating outside the law.”
The statement also reported that a number of suspects “implicated in cooperating with an armed militia and recruiting collaborators during the war” were detained in southern Gaza.
CNN, which cited the Radaa statement, said it could not independently confirm the identities of those detained, though the video of the operation surfaced after several days of reported clashes between Hamas fighters and members of the Doghmush family, a powerful clan based in Gaza City’s al-Sabra neighborhood.
In a joint statement, Palestinian resistance factions described the ongoing security operation as “a national necessity to protect citizens and preserve internal stability.”
The factions urged families “to hand over their sons involved in such acts” and said the campaign enjoyed “national consensus to restore security and pursue mercenaries and agents of the enemy.”
The Palestinian Authority, meanwhile, issued a statement condemning the reported executions in Gaza, calling them extrajudicial.
US President Donald Trump also commented on the developments, saying that Hamas had “taken out two of the gangs that were very bad,” adding that the killings “didn’t bother” him.
Speaking to reporters as he traveled to the Middle East, Trump said, “They do want to stop the problems. They’ve been open about it and we gave them approval for a period of time.”
Israel has been pushing for the complete disarmament of Hamas as part of the second phase of the ceasefire agreement.
However, the movement’s renewed internal security campaign appears to signal its determination to maintain control over the enclave while asserting its authority against criminal and collaborator networks according to The Palestine Chronicle.
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