UNICEF: Violence in the Middle East has prevented 13 million children from attending school

On Thursday, September 12, the United Nations announced that more than 13 million children have been deprived of education due to violence in the Middle East, warning that if these children do not return to classrooms, "the hopes of a generation" will be lost. In a report by the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, which examined the effects of violence on children's education in six countries and territories in the Middle East, it was emphasized that 8,850 schools are no longer usable due to conflicts. According to Agence France-Presse, the report includes details about students and teachers who have been directly targeted, classes that are used as shelters, and children who have to cross the front lines to take their exams. Peter Salama, UNICEF's regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, stated: "Children directly feel the destructive effects of conflicts. This situation not only includes the physical destruction of schools but also encompasses the despair that a generation of students has experienced, seeing their dreams and hopes shattered." Last year alone, UNICEF recorded 214 attacks on schools in Syria, Iraq, Libya, the Palestinian territories, Sudan, and Yemen. According to the United Nations Children's Fund, education in Syria, which has been embroiled in civil war for four and a half years, has a "high cost." Since the onset of the country's conflicts in 2011, one in four schools has been closed, depriving two million children of education and putting half a million more at risk of losing access to educational centers. The report noted that more than 52,000 teachers have also left their jobs, creating a significant gap in Syria's educational system. UNICEF stated: "Even those Syrian teachers who have fled to other countries face barriers to returning to their jobs." The international organization pointed out that one of the worst direct attacks on schools in the Middle East occurred in Yemen, where 13 teachers and four students were killed during an assault on a teachers' office in the western city of Amran. UNICEF added: "Killings, abductions, and arbitrary detention of students, teachers, and educational staff have become commonplace." Since the beginning of Saudi Arabia's attacks on Yemen, hundreds of schools and educational institutions in the country have been closed. Some of these schools have also been turned into strongholds for forces involved in the country's internal battles. In the Gaza Strip, which witnessed a 50-day war last year between Hamas militants and Israel, resulting in 2,200 Palestinian deaths and 73 Israeli deaths, UNICEF reported that at least 281 schools were damaged, and eight schools were completely destroyed.