UNICEF has delivered school kits into Gaza for the first time in two and a half years, a breakthrough the U.N. children’s agency says could restart learning for hundreds of thousands of students after Israeli authorities previously blocked the supplies. The move comes as Gaza’s education system remains shattered by war and severe restrictions on basic classroom materials.
“We have now, in the last days, got in thousands of recreational kits, hundreds of school-in-a-carton kits,” UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said. “We’re looking at getting 2,500 more school kits in, in the next week, because they’ve been approved.”
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The shipments include pencils, exercise books and simple wooden cubes for play and early learning. UNICEF said the supplies mark the first large-scale flow of classroom materials into the enclave since blockages halted deliveries, stranding teachers and students without essential tools.
Children in Gaza have endured an unprecedented assault on their education, Elder said, with many teachers forced to improvise lessons and children trying to study at night in tents without lights. He added that recent restrictions on aid materials — including school books and pencils — compounded the damage caused by months of bombardment and displacement.
“It’s been a long two years for children and for organizations like UNICEF to try and do that education without those materials. It looks like we’re finally seeing a real change,” Elder said.
UNICEF is scaling up education support to reach roughly half of the enclave’s school-age children — about 336,000 — with teaching expected to take place largely in tents because so many buildings are unusable. Most UNICEF-supported learning spaces will operate in central and southern Gaza, where access is more feasible; it remains difficult to run programs in the north, parts of which were badly destroyed in the final months of the conflict, according to Elder.
The physical damage is vast: at least 97% of schools sustained some level of damage, according to the most recent U.N. satellite assessment in July. With formal classrooms scarce, aid groups are racing to erect temporary spaces and distribute basic educational supplies.
Israel has accused Hamas and other militant groups of systematically embedding in civilian areas and structures, including schools, and of using civilians as human shields. The Israeli military has said such tactics force combat into dense urban zones, complicating the protection of civilian infrastructure.
The Hamas-led attack in October 2023 killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies. Israel’s subsequent assault has killed 71,000 Palestinians, Gaza’s health authorities say.
More than 20,000 children have been reported killed, including 110 since an October 10 cease-fire last year, UNICEF said, citing official data. The agency warned that the continued loss of life, displacement and trauma will shadow Gaza’s classrooms long after supplies arrive.
For now, aid groups say progress hinges on sustained access and predictable approval of shipments. UNICEF’s immediate priority is to get materials into safe learning spaces and to support teachers who have been operating with almost nothing as they try to stabilize children’s lives and restore a sense of normalcy.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
