INEE Statement – Attacks on Education in Palestine and Lebanon

The INEE Secretariat reiterates its unwavering solidarity with all those affected by the ongoing war in Gaza, and the crises in Palestine and Lebanon. We express our deepest sympathy for the lives being shattered through ongoing trauma, death, and repeated displacement. We are profoundly concerned for our many members and their families in the region who are facing unimaginable pain and loss, particularly the students and learners who are experiencing unprecedented disruption to their education. Please know that the INEE Secretariat stands in mourning and solidarity with you and all civilians impacted.

As of mid-December 2024, Israeli military actions since October 2023 have resulted in the death of more than 44,000 Palestinians, injuring at least 106,000 others and reducing large parts of Gaza to rubble while damaging or destroying many of Gaza’s homes, schools, hospitals, and much of its civilian infrastructure. 
 

“Gaza is the real-world embodiment of hell on earth for its one million children. …Attacks on schools have become unimaginable in their frequency.”
- UNICEF Spokesperson, James Elder

In the past weeks and months, we have watched a devastating and gravely concerning “pattern of attacks” on learners, education facilities, and education personnel in Palestine, raising serious alarm over the apparent systematic destruction of the Palestinian education system. These attacks, and the wider conflict, have deprived learners in Gaza, mostly children, of education for an entire year, likely impacting them for the rest of their lives.
 

“The destruction of Gaza's education system not only violates children's fundamental right to education but also threatens the long-term social, cultural, and economic fabric of Palestinian society.”
- Save the Children

In October 2024 alone, 57 incidents affecting schools were recorded, including airstrikes, forced evacuations, shelling, and arson. These incidents contribute to the disturbing reality that almost no education infrastructure remains intact in Gaza. Almost every school has sustained some level of damage to their buildings, with 88 percent of them (496 of 564) needing full reconstruction or major rehabilitation work to be functional again.
 

“My wife, family, and I went to a school for shelter, we slept in one of the classrooms. The artillery was firing on the schoolyard, and I didn’t have time to escape from the classroom. My leg was severed.”
- Male patient, MSF Report

All 12 of Gaza’s higher education institutions have been destroyed or damaged in the past year. This level of destruction will have a deep and prolonged impact on the whole of Palestinian society, with over one million children in need of mental health and psycho-social support and Gaza now having the highest number of child amputees per capita anywhere in the world.
 

“Children in Gaza have not been spared. They are killed, injured and orphaned in shocking numbers….They have already lost two years of learning. Palestinians are no strangers to loss. But to be dispossessed from education – which has always been a source of pride – is new. We cannot afford to lose an entire generation and sow the seeds for future hatred and extremism.”
- UNRWA Commissioner-General, Philippe Lazzarini

These unprecedented impacts have not been limited to Gaza, with continued and escalating violence and military incursions in the occupied West Bank, impeding children’s right to education.

In Lebanon, Israeli military attacks in October and November resulted in the killing and injuring of thousands and the displacement of over 1.3 million people before the current ceasefire was established at the end of November. This inevitably impacted the continuity and quality of education, with airstrikes also damaging education facilities. Throughout the country, the start of the 2024-25 academic year for public schools was postponed, with many schools not functional as of September, especially in the South, Southern Beirut, and Bekaa Region, and many public schools around the country being used as shelters. By November 2024, over 1 million students and 45,000 teachers had been directly affected by the conflict, with 95% of public education teachers unable to access school.

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The Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) condemns all attacks on learners, education personnel, and education facilities. The right to equitable and quality education for all learners cannot be fulfilled when education is attacked and international humanitarian law is not respected. Learners, education personnel, and education facilities are protected from disproportionate and indiscriminate attacks under international humanitarian law, which also requires parties to conflict to facilitate access to education.

INEE reiterates calls for all parties to uphold international humanitarian law and international human rights law. We also urge all parties not to use schools and universities for any purpose in support of their military effort, in line with the Safe Schools Declaration. Targeting learners, education personnel, and education facilities cannot be allowed to become the norm.

We join partners across the humanitarian sector in calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire.