The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) revealed that 69% of school buildings where displaced families were seeking shelter have been directly hit or damaged.

UNRWA said Sunday on the X platform that “nowhere is safe in Gaza.” The agency said that this blatant disregard of humanitarian law must stop, adding, “we need a ceasefire now.” “In Gaza, over 76% of schools need reconstructing or require major rehabilitation to be functional again,” UNRWA announced.

In this context, UNRWA spokesman Jonathan Fowler said that the level of destruction caused by the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip is very large, and it will take more than 20 years to erase it and rebuild, adding that about 170 UNRWA facilities in the Gaza Strip were bombed and sustained damage to varying degrees.

He pointed out that the most damaged facilities were schools due to the cessation of education since the beginning of the aggression, and their transformation into emergency shelters for c
itizens, who were displaced there in search of a safe place under the protection of the UN flag.

UNRWA was established by a decision of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 1949, and was mandated to provide assistance and protection to Palestinian refugees in its five areas of operations: Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip.

Since Oct. 7, 2023, the Israeli occupation’s extreme and unprecedented genocide on the Gaza Strip continues from all sides (air, land and sea), murdering at least 37,551 Palestinians and injuring at least 85,911 others, while thousands of victims remain under the rubble.

Source: Qatar News Agency