By Belal Awad, Leo Erhadt and Hind Khoudary / The Real News Network

Nowhere in Gaza is safe, and this is especially true for critical civilian infrastructure such as hospitals and schools. Since October, Israel has damaged or destroyed 80 percent of schools and universities in Gaza, destroying a pillar of Palestinian society. Despite this school massacre, Palestinian teachers and students remain committed to ensuring that classes continue. The Real News reports from Rafah and speaks directly to children and their teachers who are fighting back against genocide through education.

Producer: Belal Awad, Leo Erhardt
Videographer: Ruwaida Amer
Video editing: Leo Erhardt

TRANSCRIPT

Hind Khoudary:
I am currently in a school that was attacked by the Israeli forces at least three times. At half past one in the morning, people were sleeping when the Israeli forces attacked them. The whole floor is still covered in blood. Children and women are scared, but unfortunately they do not know where to go. They are still seeking shelter in the school.

Teller:
With more than 80 percent of schools in Gaza damaged or destroyed, it is reasonable to ask whether this is a deliberate attempt to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system. This is a direct quote from a UN panel of experts regarding Israel’s alleged attacks on Gaza’s educational infrastructure.

Upward tone:
Look how they tore it up. They completely destroyed the school.

Iman Ismail, Arabic teacher:
We have about 70 children in each class. Their psychological state was ruined. I noticed that the children missed school very much, they were eager to start learning again. The difficulties: Firstly, learning progress was slow due to the interruption of school lessons. Secondly, the weather – it is generally very hot in the tents. The noise of explosions from the air raids during lessons. We often hear explosions during lessons.

Teller:
The term “scholasticicide,” coined in 2009 by Oxford professor Karma Nabulsi, refers specifically to “Israel’s systematic destruction of the Palestinian education system.”

The term has been used regularly since October 7.

All 12 universities in Gaza have been destroyed. 625,000 students have no place to study in Rafah’s overcrowded camps. But teachers and community organizers have defiantly erected tent classrooms, reflecting Palestinian belief in what Nabulsi describes as the enormous “role and power of education in an occupied society.”

Salma Abu Awdeh:
Despite the difficult circumstances, we came here to learn, play and distract ourselves. We have made new friends here and are learning the core subjects: Arabic, English and mathematics.

Teller:
Children in Gaza are trying to concentrate on their lessons and teachers are struggling to maintain a semblance of normality while the hum of drones is a constant reminder in the background.

Salma Abu Awdeh:
The displacement was really hard. We were displaced from one place to another and we didn’t settle down. From Beit Hanoun we were displaced to Gaza City and from Gaza City to Deir Al Balah. Here we live in a school and life is really hard. My dream is that the war will end and that everything I hoped for in my life will come true and that I will succeed and become a doctor.

Malek Hamoudeh:
I missed school very much. When we go to school, we learn and we benefit from it. Before the war, I went to school with my friends. We played and also learned, with our teachers distracting us. We wrote and learned.

Teller:
Malek Hamoudeh is 10 years old, his father was killed in an Israeli air strike in recent months.

Malek Hamoudeh:
I lost my father suddenly, he became a martyr in this way. He was suddenly lost, we were sitting there, my cousin came and told me, “Your father was killed.” My heart was, I couldn’t. I felt like I was going to die, I was so upset about my father. He was outside, yes. He was looking for something to eat when the house was hit.

Ghadir Hamoudeh, Malek’s mother:
Even though there is war, fear and air raids, that does not mean that we stop living our lives.

We have to do things that are important. OK? We have to memorize the Quran, review our material and continue to go to the center where we signed up.

Ghadir:
OK, 6 times 9?

Malek:
54

Ghadir:
54 good, 9 times 9?

Malek:
9 times 9, um, 9 times 9… 81?

Ghadir:
81, right.

Ghadir:
After my husband was killed, I had to be a mother and a father. I try to give them some kind of security. It is difficult to deal with children who have lost their father in an atmosphere of war and fear. It has gotten to the point that every time I go out or do chores, my children say, “We are afraid that you will be killed and we will lose you.”

Don’t go, stay with us.” But the war doesn’t let me stay. I have to go to the market to provide them with food, drinks and water. All this is my job. Especially since we live in a tent. There is no water, no electricity, no basic necessities of life. Even the temperature in the tent is too hot. We adapt as best we can, but the situation is really hard for us.

Malek Hamoudeh:
I experienced the worst days of my life during this war.

Interviewer:
Why?

Malek Hamoudeh:
Because of the displacement and being separated from my father and my country. It is extremely exhausting, no water and no electricity and so much. The heat in the tent: We live in extreme heat. It is hot and there is no electricity and no light and none of the basic things we need.

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