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The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says over 625,000 children in Gaza have not attended school for more than eight months as the Israeli regime continues its brutal war on the densely-populated territory.

In a social post, the UN agency said there were 300,000 UNRWA students before the war.

"Play and learning activities provided by UNRWA teams are critical in preparing children to get back to school and restore their right to education," the UN agency said, posting photos of UNRWA staff training Gazan kids.

The regime has been attacking the densely-populated region non-stop for nearly nine months now, killing at least 15 thousand children, in defiance of a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire.

The regime has also imposed a total blockade on the strip that has cut the flow of food, clean water, and medicine to the region.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered the regime to halt its offensive in Rafah immediately.

Last Saturday, the Gaza Government’s Media Office said in a statement that at least 800,000 students of various educational levels have been deprived of their right to education in the region.

It said about 40,000 high school students will not be able to take this year’s exams, which endangers their opportunities in local and international higher education.

“40,000 high school students from various branches will not be able to participate in this year’s session of the high school exams, representing an unprecedented violation that threatens their future and undermines their chances of enrolling in local and international universities and colleges,” the media office added.

The media office said, “85 percent of educational facilities are out of service due to direct and deliberate targeting, posing a significant challenge to efforts to resume the educational process after the war ends."

It said plans have been implemented to make up for the academic year for students to ensure that the academic year is not lost and that they possess the essential concepts and skills necessary for their continued learning.

The United Nations children’s agency (UNICEF) has drawn attention to the number of child casualties in Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, saying thousands of kids remain buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings in the Palestinian territory.

UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Ted Chaiban made the remarks on Wednesday during a UN Security Council meeting on children and armed conflict.

He said that Palestinian children continue to endure “incomprehensible suffering,” particularly those in the Gaza Strip amid a “staggering” scale of death and destruction there.

Chaiban noted that more than 23,000 cases of children killed or maimed in 2023 have yet to be verified due to insecurity, movement restrictions and significant risks to humanitarian personnel operating in Gaza. 

“The bodies of thousands of missing children remain buried under rubble, and none of this includes the thousands of violations reported so far in 2024,” he added.

The UNICEF official also highlighted the obstacles that are impeding aid deliveries to Gaza and thus increasing the number of acutely malnourished children, noting “After nearly nine months of horrible conflict, UNICEF and other humanitarian actors are still struggling to reach those in need."

He further called for “a complete ceasefire” in Gaza, where many children are losing their lives due to Israel’s starvation imposed on the besieged territory.

Israel unleashed its brutal Gaza onslaught on October 7 after the Palestinian Hamas resistance group carried out its historic operation against the occupying entity in retaliation for the regime’s intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

So far, the Tel Aviv regime has killed more than 37,718 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured over 86,377 others in Gaza.

Also speaking at the Security Council meeting was Palestine's UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour who recalled that Israel has killed more children in recent months than in all armed conflict globally over the past 4 years.

He estimated that nearly 16,000 Palestinian children were killed in Israel’s aggression against Gaza while another 21,000 are missing.

The Gaza Strip, once a vibrant place where children set world records in sports, has now been reduced to a graveyard, Mansour said, calling for “collective resolve and responsibility to pressure Israel to stop the madness.”

‘Most of patients were children’

Meanwhile, Adam Hamawy, a former US Army combat surgeon who returned from a medical mission to Gaza, said that children made up most of his patients.

“The level of civilian casualties that I experienced was beyond anything I’d seen before,” the 54-year-old medic told AFP.

“Most of our patients were children under the age of 14.”

Hamawy also said that humanitarian aid must enter Gaza in “sufficient volumes to meet the demands”.

Two persons narrowly escaped after their car fell into a river while driving through a forest in Kasaragod district of Kerala on June 27 morning.

Thashreef (36) of Pullur and his friend Abdur Rasheed (35) from 7th Mile were travelling from Ambalathara, Kanhangad, to Uppinangadi in Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada when the accident occurred on the Palanji old bridge on the forest road connecting Kuttikol and Pandi at around 6 a.m.

Rashid was behind the wheels following the directions shown on Google Maps.

As they drove onto a bridge over the Pallanchi River, which lacked barricades and was submerged due to heavy rainfall, they mistook it as a road. It was dark outside and the path was not visible leading to the accident.

The car drifted about 150 meters before getting stuck in some plants. The duo managed to escape by lowering the side windows. Soon they informed their relatives about the accident via phone, who subsequently alerted fire force officials.

Fire force along with local residents rescued Rashid and Thashreef, who sustained minor injuries in the accident. Efforts to retrieve the car from the river are ongoing. 

Notably, a new, taller bridge was constructed 500 meters from the accident spot four years ago, but Google Maps still shows the old bridge.