Young people’s access to education and learning during the war on Gaza: longitudinal evidence from GAGE

Since the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023, Israel has carried out actions that amount to genocide. It has systematically destroyed the Gaza Strip, killed tens of thousands of people, and deliberately deprived Gaza’s population of life-saving humanitarian aid (Amnesty International, 2024; HRW, 2024; Asem, 2025; B’Tselem, 2025; Forensic Architecture, 2025; UN, 2025). Given the unprecedented level of violence inflicted on civilians, an often-overlooked dimension of the conflict is its impact on education. The complete destruction of Gaza’s sophisticated education infrastructure has been coined ‘scholasticide’, as the Israeli army has systematically targeted educational facilities and damaged or destroyed more than 97% of Gaza’s schools (OHCHR, 2024; UNICEF, 2025). Although the ceasefire in place since 10 October 2025 has brought some relief to young people in Gaza, humanitarian aid continues to be obstructed, and hundreds of Palestinians have been killed because of Israeli hostilities (OHCHR, 2026). There is also significant uncertainty surrounding future plans for the Gaza Strip, which would fall under the oversight of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, appointed by US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace.

Suggested citation 

Vintges, J., E., Abu Hamad, B., Diab, R., Leung, S. and Jones, N. (2026) ‘Young people’s access to education and learning during the war on Gaza: longitudinal evidence from GAGE’. Policy brief. London: Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence (https://gage.odi.org/young-people-s-access-to-education-and-learning-during-the-war-on-gaza-longitudinal-evidence-from-gage)