New @UNRWA report says Israel attacks "education" in Gaza, does not mention Hamas teachers or terrorists using schools

UNRWA issued a press release last week:

The ongoing war in Gaza will set children and young people’s education back by up to five years and risks creating a lost generation of permanently traumatised Palestinian youth, a new study warns.

The report, by a team of academics working in partnership with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), is the first to comprehensively quantify the war’s toll on learning since it began in October 2023. It also details the devastating impact on children, young people and teachers, supported by new accounts from frontline staff and aid workers.

The study was a joint undertaking involving UNRWA and researchers at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge and the Centre for Lebanese Studies. 

Professor Pauline Rose, Director of the Research for Equitable Access and Learning (REAL) Centre, University of Cambridge, said: “Palestinian education is under attack in Gaza. Israeli military operations have had a significant effect on learning.”

The 51 page report is titled "Palestinian Education Under Attack in Gaza," making its bias clear from the outset, suggesting Israel is deliberately attacking schools for no military purpose. 

The entire report does not mention Hamas once.

It does not say a word about Hamas using schools for military purposes - to hide weapons, for meetings to plan attacks. it does not mention that civilian facilities used for military purposes become legitimate targets under international law. Even the word "militant" is not to be found. 

Moreover, it does not mention once that many teachers in Gaza were and are also terrorists. 

Someone reading this report would think that the entire war is Israel attacking Gaza schools and civilians for no reason whatsoever.

Seth Frantzman at FDD detailed Hamas' use of schools over a two month period over the summer. Excerpts:

On July 6, the IDF struck terrorists at the Al-Jaouni school in central Gaza and on July 4, the IDF also said that it “struck terrorists who operated from UNRWA schools in the area of Gaza City – the Alqahirah school in Al-Furqan and the Musa School in Daraj Tuffah.”

In June, the IDF [said], “As part of operational searches of civilian structures converted into terrorist infrastructure, the soldiers raided a UN school that the terrorists of the Shejaia Battalion were using as a hideout and a warehouse.”

Hamas was operating a compound that the IDF said was “embedded” inside the UNRWA school in Nuseirat. Furthermore, the IAF also “targeted Hamas terrorists operating from a container inside the grounds of the Asmaa UNRWA school in Shati.”

Then, on June 4, the IDF also said that it “struck a Hamas compound embedded inside UNRWA’s Abu al-Hilu school in El-Bureij, located in the central Gaza Strip, from which Hamas terrorists operated and planned numerous attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops operating in Gaza.”

On May 30, the IDF said that a terrorist fired an anti-tank missile from a UNRWA school in Rafah.

On May 22, the IAF targeted “a compound located inside a UNRWA school where Hamas terrorists, including an anti-tank missile operative and a Nukhba terrorist, were operating,” the IDF said.

In another incident on May 14, the IDF declared that it carried out a precision strike “on a central Hamas war room commander embedded inside a UNRWA school in the area of Nuseirat. The war room was used by terrorist operatives in Hamas’s military wing. The strike was carried out using precise munitions in order to minimize harm to uninvolved civilians.”

Yet Hamas is not at fault in this report. Hamas doesn't even exist.

Beyond that,  the report includes unattributed quotes of claims that are demonstrably false.

A pull-quote says, “Since October 7, all educational materials and stationery have been rejected by the Israelis. We need to lift restrictions on needed materials and required stationery as soon as possible."

UNRWA's detailed reports on aid to Gaza shows that shipments of notebooks (and toys) were delivered to UNRWA in Gaza on April 16, and UNRWA also received stationery in July as well as September.

Clearly Israel is not rejecting stationery and school materials. UNRWA is just not requesting them very often.

This report is just another of endless examples of how anti-Israel propaganda works, disguised as serious research. Everything is seen through a prism of assumed unrelenting Israeli evil, so the authors can't even imagine checking facts that agree with their prejudices. 

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