The Rights to and Within Education in Armed Conflicts: The Case of Gaza 2023–2025

Abstract

The systematic attacks against the civilian population in Gaza, including educational institutions, constitute war crimes that violate the right to education and affect not only children but also an entire culture’s ability to recover post-conflict and maintain its identity. This document review analysed the reports issued by Nations agencies to identify the types of violence that occur in educational contexts, the victims of such violence, the impact on the rights to and within education, and the educational measures implemented in response. A thematic analysis guided by Karma Nabulsi’s concept of “scholasticide”, Rita Segato’s “pedagogy of cruelty”, and Sara Ahmed’s “witness” was conducted. The findings reveal that the attacks on educational spaces can be interpreted as ideological strategies against the Palestinian culture due to their critical role in cultural resilience and the recovery of the Palestinian people. The reports highlight significant limitations in recognising education as a priority dimension within the framework of international humanitarian aid. Finally, the analysed documents show that children in Gaza experience feelings of abandonment based on the inaction of the international community to guarantee their right to be free from all kinds of violence.

1. Introduction

Since the beginning of the 21st century, armed conflicts have increased significantly in various parts of the world. According to the Peace Research Institute Oslo (Rustad 2024), 59 armed conflicts involving at least one state were recorded in 2023. Of these, nine reached the classification of “war”, exceeding one thousand deaths per year, in countries like Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Israel–Gaza, Myanmar, Nigeria, Russia and Ukraine, Somalia, Sudan, and Syria.

Currently, these conflicts are characterised by indiscriminate violence against civilian populations, with children being amongst the most severely affected groups (UNICEF 2024c). The European Union (2024) warns of the serious violations of children’s rights during current armed conflicts. At the same time, UNICEF (2024e) confirms that 19% of the global child population lives in conflict zones; a figure that has doubled over the past 30 years.

Legal frameworks, such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) and its Optional Protocols on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (2000), explicitly establish children’s rights to be protected from violence, abuse, and exploitation. These instruments are complemented by international humanitarian law, including the Geneva Convention (1949), its Additional Protocols (1977), and the Paris Principles (2007), all of which emphasise the need for special protection of children in conflict settings. Furthermore, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (Rome Statute 1998) classifies the recruitment of child soldiers, sexual violence, and attacks against civilians as war crimes. In alignment with these frameworks, United Nations Security Council (2005) resolutions call for monitoring mechanisms and accountability measures to ensure the protection of children.

Despite this robust legal framework, violations against children continue to escalate. In 2023 alone, 32,990 grave violations against 22,557 children were reported in 25 conflict-affected regions (Save the Children International 2024a, 2024b). Alarmingly, 8655 minors were documented as being used in combat activities, and there was a 25% increase in cases of sexual violence against children, with 1470 cases reported (United Nations 2024a).

Attacks on education represent one of the most devastating and persistent forms of violence. These attacks include the direct use of force against students, teachers, and school facilities, as well as the military occupation of educational institutions (Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack, GCPEA 2025b). It is estimated that 1650 such attacks occurred in countries such as Israel, Palestine, Ukraine, Myanmar, and Sudan (United Nations 2024a). The consequences are severe, ranging from loss of life to the long-term deterioration of educational quality. These effects particularly harm excluded social groups and profoundly impact the emotional and cognitive development of children (Machel 1996).

This article introduces a study of one of the conflicts that, in recent years, has been characterised by extreme violence against children (UNICEF 2025b; Permanent Mission of France to the United Nations in New York 2025), namely, the armed conflict in Gaza. This contribution analyses and discusses the impact of various forms of violence on the rights to and within education during the armed conflict in Gaza. The research is based on a thematic text analysis of reports and official statements from United Nations agencies and is guided by the following questions:

• What kinds of violence have impacted the rights to and within education during the armed conflict in Gaza?
• Who are the victims of these forms of violence?
• What is the specific impact on educational institutions?
• What kinds of educational measures do the selected international organisations propose to guarantee children’s rights to and within education?

2. The Armed Conflict in Gaza

Although the British administration supported the independence of all former Ottoman territories placed under its administration after World War I, Palestine was not included in British support for independence (United Nations 2025b, 2025c). In 1917, through the Balfour Declaration (cited in United Nations 2025a), the British administration in Palestine expressed support for “… the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”. During the period from 1922 to 1947, even during the British Mandate, Palestine saw “large-scale Jewish immigration, mainly from Eastern Europe, which increased in number in the 1930s with the Nazi persecution”. In 1947, following a period of turbulence, rebellion, and violence between various groups, the UK decided to hand over the Palestine problem to the UN (United Nations 2025b, 2025c).

In 1948, the United Nations proposed the partition of Palestine into two independent states, one Palestinian Arab and one Jewish, with Jerusalem being internationalised. However, the partition of Palestine never materialised. Israel instead declared its independence in 1948 and, in a series of successive wars during the period 1948–1967, occupied much of the Palestinian territory, including the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. The successive wars waged by Israel during this period in Palestinian territory led to the exile of many Palestinians. In 1974, the United Nations General Assembly reaffirmed the rights of the Palestinian people to return to their land and to independence and self-determination (United Nations 2025b, 2025c).

According to the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People created by a resolution of the United Nations General Assembly in 1975, Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory has increased considerably since 1967, resulting in severe humanitarian, political, and socio-economic crises for the Palestinian people (United Nations 2023).

Since 1967, the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory has been characterised by human rights violations committed against the Palestinian civilian population as well as increased Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory (United Nations 2023, 2025b, 2025c; Amnesty International 2025d).

On 7 October 2023, Hamas-led attacks resulted in approximately 1200 deaths in Israel and the abduction of 250 individuals, including children, alongside documented cases of sexual violence (PBS 2024; UNICEF 2024c). Israel responded with a large-scale military offensive against Gaza, including bombings, ground assaults, and a total blockade, leading to a humanitarian catastrophe for the Palestinian population (UNRWA 2025a; OCHA 2025a; United Nations 2025c; Anastas 2024).

Israel’s violence has resulted in 59,219 people being killed and 143,045 injured during the period 7 October 2023–23 July 2025. In addition, 330 UNRWA team members have been killed during the same period (UNRWA 2025f). At the same time, the Palestinian population has been repeatedly subjected to forced displacements, in some cases, more than 10 (UNRWA 2025f).

According to UNESCO’s preliminary damage assessment for cultural properties dated 27 May 2025, 110 cultural properties that constituted part of the region’s cultural heritage were damaged by Israels attacks. Based on this assessment, UNESCO, registered the following damages during the period 7 October 2023–27 May 2025: “13 religious sites, 77 buildings of historical and/or artistic interest, 3 depositories of movable cultural property, 9 monuments, 1 museum and 7 archeological sites.” (UNESCO 2025).

In 2025, the UN-led coordination and distribution of humanitarian support to the Palestinian population in Gaza was replaced by the American organisation Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Israel’s decision to change the coordination and distribution of humanitarian aid has had a devastating effect on the Palestinian population’s well-being. A total of 500 Palestinians were killed and 4000 were injured while queuing to collect food from GHF. GHF’s control of the distribution of food has resulted in a reduction in aid points from 400 to 4 militarised distribution sites (UNRWA 2025e, 2025f). In June 2025, OXFAM and over 170 NGOs operating in Gaza demanded that Israel return the coordination and distribution of humanitarian support to the UN and end the blockade on aid and commercial supplies (OXFAM International 2025).

Considered as a war crime, the use of starvation as a method of warfare in Gaza has resulted in increased violence against the civilian population. As of 13 July, a total of 875 Palestinians has been killed seeking food, and thousands have been injured. On 20 July, around two million Palestinians were victims of a mass enforced displacement. This enforced displacement resulted in the confinement of Palestinians to less than 12 per cent of the Gaza Strip (Amnesty International 2025c).

The reconstruction of Gaza is estimated to cost more than USD 53 billion, with urgent priority placed on rebuilding the education system (World Bank et al. 2025). However, to date, no effective ceasefire or sufficient protection measures have been achieved, revealing a profound gap between international law and its implementation.

South Africa filed a case before the International Court of Justice, accusing Israel of genocide (International Court of Justice 2023), while Amnesty International (2024, 2025a, 2025b, 2025c) suggested in its report that Israel’s disproportionate use of force against civilians and vital infrastructure could constitute acts of genocide.

In addition, the report of the Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 (Human Rights Council 2025) confirms that the violations against the Palestinian population are ongoing because they are lucrative for national and international actors. Using the term genocide to describe these violations, this report points out that Israel’s violent occupation of Palestine is sustained because it offers economic profit to different kind of corporate entities, such as “… arms manufacturers, tech firms, building and construction companies, extractive and service industries, banks, pension funds, insurers, universities and charities” (Human Rights Council 2025, p. 2). This report includes several recommendations to stop Israel’s violent occupation of Palestinian territories, for example, sanctions, a full arms embargo on Israel, and the suspension of all trade agreements and investment relations with this country.

However, unlike the International Court of Justice, the Amnesty International Council, and the UN’s Special Rapporteur, the EU is not so hard in its judgment of Israel’s violent acts in Gaza. In April 2025, the European Diplomatic Services (EEAS 2025) reported that the EU kept agreements with third countries, including Israel, under constant review. Nevertheless, the EU does not plan to suspend its agreements with Israel or impose economic sanctions because an ongoing dialogue with the Israeli government is a more effective strategy in this case.

At the same time, the EU’s June 2025 assessment of the EU–Israel Association Agreement concluded that Israel would only be “in breach of its human rights obligations under the so-called human rights clause (Article 2) of the EU-Israel Association Agreement”. Conducted by the European External Action Service (EEAS), this review only found indications of Israeli human rights violations in Gaza (Amnesty International 2025a; Euronews 2025; The Guardian 2025). Moreover, the EU has not yet made a decision to abolish the EU–Israel Association Agreement, which remains in force.

3. International Legal Framework

In this research, we argue that the right to education cannot be analysed separately from that within education, namely, the conditions in which access to equitable and inclusive education of quality is guaranteed for all children.

This integrative perspective in relation to the right to education is supported by the integration claim concerning the goal of a right to equitable and inclusive education of quality expressed in Agenda 2030 (2015) (see United Nations General Assembly 2015). According to this document, all the sustainable goals are strongly integrated because the action of one goal impacts the enactment of all the other goals. Based on the balance of social, economic, and environmental sustainability, this integrative perspective on the right to education in the Gaza conflict cannot be analysed separately from other conditions regarding children’s well-being.

Furthermore, Article 29 in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) relates education to other aspects of children’s well-being, for example, respect for the child’s cultural identity, language values, and the national values of the country to which the child belongs.

Consequently, in order to avoid a simplistic analysis of the right to education in the Gaza armed conflict, we argue that the analysis of different kinds of violence committed against children is relevant in an analysis of the right to education. Furthermore, this analysis also pays attention to international law protecting the rights of children in armed conflicts in areas other than education.

From this integrative perspective, we argue that the following documents are examples of the relevant legal framework covering different areas related to children’s rights to and within education in armed conflicts:

• Key instruments, such as the Hague Convention (1907), the Geneva Convention (1949), and the Rome Statute (1998), prohibit attacks on civilians, the recruitment of children, and attacks on schools, all of which are classified as war crimes.
• The Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) and its Optional Protocols on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict (2000) require state parties to take effective measures to shield children from the effects of war.
• The United Nations Security Council (2018) has strengthened these principles through resolutions such as 1261 (1999), 1612 (2005), and 2427 (2018), thereby establishing mechanisms to monitor violations and reaffirm the civilian status of schools.
• Through the Agenda 2030’s the Sustainable Development Goals (2015), particularly SDG 16, the international community explicitly commits to eliminating all forms of violence against children.
• The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948) identifies the forcible transfer of children as an act of genocide, which is a grave form of structural violence against children in wartime.

In addition, organisations like the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA 2025a, 2025b) have emphasised that attacks and threats against schools, students, and teachers violate both international humanitarian law and the right to education, thus severely limiting students’ access to safe learning spaces.

4. State of the Art: Children in Modern Armed Conflicts

Numerous studies have revealed the impact of armed conflicts on childhood. One important dimension concerns economic conditions. Findings show that children living in conflict-affected territories have a higher risk of malnutrition, infectious diseases, stunted growth, and mental health issues, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety (Frounfelker et al. 2019). This has consequences for child mortality rates in both the short and long term and has a lasting effect on the well-being indicators of these countries (Weinberg et al. 2017).

In a study conducted by Dryden-Peterson (2011) on the impact of armed conflict on children’s education, the effects were observed at individual, family, community, and systemic levels. Disruptions to students’ educational trajectories were attributed to forced displacement, direct attacks on educational institutions, the military occupation of schools, the disintegration of education systems, and a shortage of teachers.

Moreover, it was noted that attacks on schools fragment communities and exacerbate pre-existing inequalities, thereby generating an impact that affects entire generations and undermines their future ability to contribute to the social and economic reconstruction of their countries (Salha et al. 2024).

A study conducted in Gaza during 2014 revealed that 100% of children reported experiencing at least one war-related traumatic event: 78% were exposed to school violence, 64% to domestic violence, and 48% to community violence, with cumulative effects manifesting as mental health symptoms. The study highlighted that school violence, combined with community and domestic violence, creates unsafe educational environments that limit resilience and learning (El-Khodary and Samara 2020).

The psychological impact of armed conflicts on children has been extensively studied (Bendavid et al. 2021). Research on the Kosovo war not only explored the traumatic consequences and their implications for children’s mental health but also examined the effects on family networks and community-based care systems. The findings revealed that these disruptions made post-conflict recovery particularly difficult for children. Schools were identified as crucial spaces, not only for formal education but also as emotional support environments that help to restore a sense of normality and provide accessible psychosocial resources (Cole and Brown 2002; Dryden-Peterson 2011; Wessells 2001).

Several studies concur that the effects of armed conflict on children are not homogeneous (Abu-Kaf et al. 2021), meaning that many realities remain inadequately addressed in humanitarian interventions and post-conflict recovery efforts, further deepening the existing gender gaps (Wessells 2001; Bendavid et al. 2021).

Findings also report differences in psychological symptoms between boys and girls, as well as among adolescents, with girls more likely to exhibit internalising behaviour and boys externalising behaviour (Cole and Brown 2002; Abu-Kaf et al. 2021). In terms of educational reintegration, studies have shown that girls are less likely to return to school after a conflict than boys due to economic, cultural, and security pressures (Dryden-Peterson 2011). Despite this evidence, gender-sensitive approaches remain scarce in many emergency education programmes (Salha et al. 2024).

Children with disabilities are often rendered invisible in humanitarian strategies, with girls facing double discrimination. Studies show that children with disabilities encounter greater barriers to education and healthcare access, thus highlighting the urgent need for gender- and diversity-sensitive approaches in humanitarian interventions (Ćerimović 2023).

Evidence from regions affected by protracted conflicts, such as parts of Africa, shows a significant rise in neonatal and post-neonatal mortality rates, indicating the necessity of integrating maternal and child health interventions as part of post-conflict recovery efforts (Wagner et al. 2018; Bendavid et al. 2021).

Regarding the long-term consequences of war on education and the labour market, research from Tajikistan shows that exposure to conflict has significant negative effects on the completion of basic education and employment outcomes, with particularly severe impacts on women (Simizutani and Yamada 2024). Women exposed to war during childhood were found to have a lower likelihood of securing paid employment (Ćerimović 2023).

Among refugee populations, children and adolescents exhibit low academic performance, high absenteeism, and elevated dropout rates, driven by economic needs that force them into work, as well as experiences of racial discrimination within schools (Al-Shatanawi et al. 2023). The sense of community coherence and acculturation strategies were found to influence mental health outcomes. These findings underline adolescence as a critical stage in adapting to forced displacement, where the prolonged perception of threat complicates the recovery process (Abu-Kaf et al. 2021).

In addition, Muthanna et al. (2022) highlighted the interaction of the direct and indirect impacts of war on education. Examples of direct impacts are forced displacement, deterioration of mental health, school dropout, reduced student achievement, and budget cuts in teacher salaries, as well as the use of children as soldiers during armed conflict. In turn, these direct impacts interact with the social and cultural contexts of war-affected countries and generate indirect impacts, such as increased discrimination of displaced and vulnerable groups, increased gender inequality, a resurgence of identity conflicts in the classroom, a loss of dignity in the teaching work of displaced teachers, and increased mental health problems of students who require adequate professional help to be treated effectively, as well as the reinforcement of educational policies and practices based on economic gains rather than on human rights and democratic principles.

Reports indicate that psychosocial interventions have a positive effect, particularly when formal education is complemented by playful, artistic, and cooperative activities, and help to restore social, academic, and emotional skills affected by the trauma of armed conflicts. Schools thus emerge as key spaces for children’s recovery (El-Khodary and Samara 2020).

Furthermore, evidence highlights the importance of establishing “temporary schools” during conflict periods and implementing adaptive educational programmes and emergency education strategies promoted by international agencies, such as UNICEF and Save the Children. These initiatives contribute significantly to building resilience and emotional stability, provided they incorporate a psychosocial perspective addressing students’ needs (Dryden-Peterson 2011; Wessells 2001).

Finally, a study that systematised the necessary interventions for armed conflict contexts identified several key strategies: developing curricula adapted to war conditions, training teachers in psychosocial support, using low-energy technologies, and promoting public policies that prioritise emergency education with a focus on gender equity and inclusion (Salha et al. 2024).

5. Theoretical Framework

The use of theory in social research often aims to offer structured interpretations or models and analytical tools to understand the investigated problem (Willis et al. 2007).

In this research, the use of theory does not aim to verify or falsify hypotheses concerning the impact of different forms of violence. On the contrary, the selected specific theoretical framework aims to contribute to a better understanding of the impact of different forms of violence on children’s rights to and within education in armed conflicts.

In addition, understanding education as a space in which the power structures that create conditions of inequality are contested (Freire 1970) and as a site where certain forms of knowledge are validated and legitimised over others (Giroux 1983) means recognising that education is not neutral and is one of the most potent political weapons for both transforming and resisting conditions of oppression. In this sense, the rights to—and within—education in wartime contexts often go beyond being mere collateral damage. Rather, it becomes a deliberate strategy aimed at undermining a people’s capacity for critical consciousness and for transforming their historically oppressive conditions.

Against this background, this study draws on a multidisciplinary theoretical approach to analyse the violence against children’s rights to and within education during the armed conflict in Gaza. Central to this analysis is Segato’s (2003) concept of violence as aggressive self-defence, which interprets violence not merely as an act of destruction but as a strategy used by those in dominant positions to reaffirm, restore, or defend their privileges within asymmetric power relations. According to Segato, these relations construct hierarchies in which some subjects are perceived as “fully human” participants in a circle of equals, while others are diminished or dehumanised. “This asymmetry stems from a process of symbolic and material dispossession that depletes the humanity of the dominated to nourish the superiority of the dominator” (Segato 2003, p. 254).

In extreme scenarios such as war, Segato (2018) argues that this dynamic gives rise to a pedagogy of cruelty—a process of socialisation through which society, and particularly its male combatants, are conditioned to exercise sovereignty over vulnerable bodies with impunity. This violence often targets civilians—particularly women and children—caught in what Segato calls “the deaf war”. In such contexts, violence becomes a performative tool, in that it disciplines and desensitises, displays power, and reinforces masculinised models of domination. These patterns are not incidental but systemic and are designed to maintain control and impose terror as a strategy of war and social control.

To further expand the understanding of how racialised and geo-political hierarchies shape the experience of children in conflict zones, we draw on Ahmed’s (2007) concept of whiteness as orientation. Ahmed frames whiteness not only as a racial category, but as an embodied structure of perception that governs who belongs and who is out of place in specific social and spatial orders.

Furthermore, to understand the systematic targeting of educational infrastructure, we incorporate Karma Nabulsi’s concept of scholasticide, as defined by the collective Scholars Against the War on Palestine. Scholasticide refers not only to the deliberate destruction of schools but also to the broader annihilation of educational ecosystems, including libraries, archives, cultural heritage, and the intellectual life of a society. It includes the killing of teachers, students, and academic staff, as well as the military occupation and use of educational facilities. This concept frames education not as collateral damage but as a deliberate target of war, with the goal of dismantling the collective future of a population.

In sum, this article proposes an analytical model that integrates Segato’s theory of power and cruelty, Ahmed’s spatial politics of whiteness, and Nabulsi’s notion of scholasticide to understand how armed conflict in Gaza violates children’s rights to and within education. These frameworks are not only conceptually complementary but necessary to capture the multidimensional nature of violence in war—from symbolic erasure to material devastation.

6. Materials and Methods

This research was conducted by means of a document analysis, understood as a methodological strategy for analysing and understanding complex phenomena by systematically studying documents produced by relevant institutions (Bowen 2009). In this case, the material consisted of 17 official documents issued by various United Nations agencies concerning the armed conflict in Gaza, covering the period 11 October 2023 to 1 July 2025, with a special focus on the impact on children’s rights to and within education. The documents analysed were produced by agencies such as UNESCO, UN Women, UNRWA, OCHA, and UNICEF, thus offering a range of perspectives that enriched the analysis.

The decision to focus exclusively on United Nations documents was based on their international legitimacy and recognised authority. As Barnett (2002) argues, international organisations not only participate in conflicts but also construct legitimate narratives that shape a global understanding of these processes. Furthermore, these agencies possess technical mechanisms for data collection, such as field monitoring and inter-agency coordination systems, which ensure high standards of systematisation and reliability (Merry 2011).

Additionally, United Nations documents provide a multi-scalar and comprehensive perspective, allowing for the analysis of both the direct impact of conflict and its broader structural consequences across different sectors. In this study, this approach was essential to understanding the educational sector in relation to other areas. Working exclusively with documents from a single institutional system also ensured thematic coherence and conceptual comparability, thereby strengthening the consistency of the qualitative analysis (Creswell in Takona 2024).

The following documents were selected:

Table 1. Selected key documents.

UNESCO, and UNRWA. 2024. Eighth Special Session of the UNESCO. Executive Board Statement by Julia Dicum, UNRWA Director of Education 25 November 2024. (UNESCO and UNRWA 2024)

2. UNESCO 2024. Global Education Monitoring Report 2024/5: Leadership in Education—Lead for Learning. (UNESCO 2024)

3. UN WOMEN 2024. Scarcity and Fear: A Gender Analysis of the Impact of the War in Gaza on Vital Services Essential to Women’s and Girl’s Health, Safety and Dignity: Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH). UN Women, April 2024. (UN Women 2024).

4. UNRWA. 2024. Situation Report #145 on the Humanitarian Crisis in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, 17–24 October 2024. (UNRWA 2024) 5. UNRWA. 2025a. Situation Report #167 on the Humanitarian Crisis in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, 9–15 April 2025. (UNRWA 2025a) 6. UNRWA. 2025b. Situation Report #170 on the Humanitarian Crisis in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Available online: https://www.unrwa.org/resources/reports/unrwa-situation-report-170-situation-gaza-strip-and-west-bank-including-east-jerusalem (UNRWA 2025b) (accessed on 22 August 2025). 7. UNRWA. 2025c. The people of Gaza hear the sound of playing children instead of bombardments and airstrikes. January 2025. Available online: https://www.unrwa.org/resources/reports/unrwa-situation-report-170-situation-gaza-strip-and-west-bank-including-east-jerusalem). (UNRWA 2025c) (accessed on 22 August 2025)

8. Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, Centre for Lebanese Studies, and UNRWA. 2024. Palestinian Education under Attack in Gaza. (Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge et al. 2024)

9. OCHA. 2023. Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel | Flash Update #5, 11 October 2023. (OCHA 2023) 10. OCHA. 2025a. UNRWA Situation Report #180 on the Humanitarian Crisis in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. (OCHA 2025a) 11. OCHA. 2025b. Humanitarian Situation Update # 300 Gaza Strip [EN/AR/HE] 26 June 2025. (OCHA 2025b)

12. OCHA. 2025c. Today’s top news: Occupied Palestinian Territory, Syria, Sudan. 1 July 2025. (OCHA 2025c) 13. UNICEF. 2023. Global Annual Results Report 2023: Humanitarian Action Progress, results achieved and lessons from 2023 in UNICEF humanitarian action. (UNICEF 2023) 14. UNICEF. 2024a. Children in Gaza still at the sharp end of unrelenting war. (UNICEF 2024a) 15. UNICEF. 2024b. Consolidated Emergency Report 2023. (UNICEF 2024b) 16. UNICEF. 2024d. Palestinian children under siege. (UNICEF 2024d) 17. UNICEF. 2025a. Scaling up Supplies and Services for Children in the Gaza Strip: UNICEF. 27 January 2025. (UNICEF 2025a)

Sources of different kinds were also selected, including annual reports, situation updates, and records of work sessions.

Table 1. Selected key documents.

UNESCO, and UNRWA. 2024. Eighth Special Session of the UNESCO. Executive Board Statement by Julia Dicum, UNRWA Director of Education 25 November 2024. (UNESCO and UNRWA 2024)

2. UNESCO 2024. Global Education Monitoring Report 2024/5: Leadership in Education—Lead for Learning. (UNESCO 2024)

3. UN WOMEN 2024. Scarcity and Fear: A Gender Analysis of the Impact of the War in Gaza on Vital Services Essential to Women’s and Girl’s Health, Safety and Dignity: Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH). UN Women, April 2024. (UN Women 2024).

4. UNRWA. 2024. Situation Report #145 on the Humanitarian Crisis in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, 17–24 October 2024. (UNRWA 2024) 5. UNRWA. 2025a. Situation Report #167 on the Humanitarian Crisis in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, 9–15 April 2025. (UNRWA 2025a) 6. UNRWA. 2025b. Situation Report #170 on the Humanitarian Crisis in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Available online: https://www.unrwa.org/resources/reports/unrwa-situation-report-170-situation-gaza-strip-and-west-bank-including-east-jerusalem (UNRWA 2025b) (accessed on 22 August 2025). 7. UNRWA. 2025c. The people of Gaza hear the sound of playing children instead of bombardments and airstrikes. January 2025. Available online: https://www.unrwa.org/resources/reports/unrwa-situation-report-170-situation-gaza-strip-and-west-bank-including-east-jerusalem). (UNRWA 2025c) (accessed on 22 August 2025)

8. Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, Centre for Lebanese Studies, and UNRWA. 2024. Palestinian Education under Attack in Gaza. (Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge et al. 2024)

9. OCHA. 2023. Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel | Flash Update #5, 11 October 2023. (OCHA 2023) 10. OCHA. 2025a. UNRWA Situation Report #180 on the Humanitarian Crisis in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. (OCHA 2025a) 11. OCHA. 2025b. Humanitarian Situation Update # 300 Gaza Strip [EN/AR/HE] 26 June 2025. (OCHA 2025b)

12. OCHA. 2025c. Today’s top news: Occupied Palestinian Territory, Syria, Sudan. 1 July 2025. (OCHA 2025c) 13. UNICEF. 2023. Global Annual Results Report 2023: Humanitarian Action Progress, results achieved and lessons from 2023 in UNICEF humanitarian action. (UNICEF 2023) 14. UNICEF. 2024a. Children in Gaza still at the sharp end of unrelenting war. (UNICEF 2024a) 15. UNICEF. 2024b. Consolidated Emergency Report 2023. (UNICEF 2024b) 16. UNICEF. 2024d. Palestinian children under siege. (UNICEF 2024d) 17. UNICEF. 2025a. Scaling up Supplies and Services for Children in the Gaza Strip: UNICEF. 27 January 2025. (UNICEF 2025a)

Sources of different kinds were also selected, including annual reports, situation updates, and records of work sessions.

The analysis was conducted using a thematic analysis strategy. This technique enables the examination of qualitative data from textual sources by identifying both explicit and implicit meanings (Braun and Clarke 2006) and facilitates the detection of recurring patterns and the organisation of data. The reading of the documents focused on the following:

• The kinds of violence impacting the rights to and within education;
• The victims of these forms of violence during the conflict;
• The measures taken to support children’s rights to and within education.

Finally, the results of this thematic text analysis are discussed in relation to the theoretical starting points, the legal framework of children’s rights to and within education, and earlier research in the field.

6.1. The Limitations of This Research

The empirical data analysed in this research is limited to a selected number of UN organisations and selected documents from these organisations. The UN was chosen because of its status as an international organisation representing 196 countries, including Israel.

In addition, the UN is the organisation tasked with responsibility for finding a just solution to the Palestine issue since 1947 (see United Nations 2025b, 2025c).

Furthermore, the fact that UNRWA was selected for this research, despite Israel’s allegations of collaboration with Hamas, can be seen as a limitation of this study. However, a UN evaluation of UNRWA has shown that there is no evidence to suggest that this is true. Moreover, UNRWA is the UN organisation with special and specific expertise on the Gaza conflict (UNRWA 2025d; United Nations 2024c).

This study acknowledges a key limitation: the absence of direct voices from children and other groups most affected by the violence in Gaza. The data used was mediated through institutional channels, which, despite their credibility, cannot fully replace first-hand accounts of lived experience.

Despite these limitations, we argue that this research can contribute to a deeper understanding of the impact of various forms of violence on the rights to and within education during the armed conflict in Gaza. The diversity of the UN organisations and the analysed documents allows for a richer analysis by capturing different UN institutional perspectives and approaches to the conflict. The choice of the UN as a source for the empirical data allowed us to collect empirical data that was not expected to be biased in its reporting of human rights violations. This conscious limitation seeks to avoid sources influenced by state-driven or overtly political interests, thus ensuring a more objective and rights-based analysis of the conflict and its impact on children.

6.2. Ethical Considerations

From an ethical perspective on the processes through which research is conducted (Markham 2018), this study was guided by principles that informed the formulation of research questions, the selection of the documentary corpus, the methodological approach, and the dissemination of findings.

This ethical lens also shaped the role of the researchers in relation to the choice and analysis of the empirical case and material. In this regard, the researchers were understood as implicated subjects, following the concept developed by Rothberg (2019), who argues that researchers—although not direct victims or perpetrators—may be indirectly connected, often unconsciously and without malicious intent, to political and economic dynamics that perpetuate forms of violence.

One of the central ethical questions to reflect on as researchers is the choice of focus for the research. In this study, the choice was to limit the focus of the research to the armed conflict in Gaza.

According to different UN organisations (UNICEF 2025b; Permanent Mission of France to the United Nations in New York 2025), the armed conflict in Gaza has been characterised by extreme violence against children. Considered by the UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini as “…a war on children”, “… a war on their childhood and their future”, the conflict area in Gaza was registered in March 2024 as the place with the “Number of children killed higher than from four years of world conflict”. (United Nations 2024b).

Against this background, we argue that this study’s focus on Gaza as an extreme case of armed conflict is legitimate, in that it can provide a deeper understanding of the limitations of international legislation to prevent and combat war crimes against children. In addition, it can offer more knowledge about the measures needed to support children’s rights to and within education in extreme violence during armed conflicts.

Furthermore, in agreement with Gaywood et al. (2020), it was important for us to reflect on the methodological positioning in relation to the choice of empirical material concerning studies of children. Therefore, it was also essential to avoid analytical frameworks that might legitimise, reproduce, or obscure violence perpetrated against children, regardless of ethnic affiliation. For this reason, this study relied exclusively on documents produced by United Nations agencies, such as UNESCO, UNRWA, UN Women, and UNICEF, which, although actively involved in humanitarian monitoring and response, operate from an institutional position committed to the principles of impartiality, international law, and human rights protection. In addition, as UN-selected documents are publicly available, no ethical permission was necessary.

7. Results

The results are introduced by an explanation of the cases related to the reading of the empirical data, namely, the kinds of violence impacting the rights to and within education, the victims of these forms of violence during the conflict, and the measures taken to support children’s rights to and within education. A description of the categories related to each focus area is presented in this section. Quotations from the empirical data are also included to exemplify each category. Tables summarising the types of violence reported by each organisation are presented. Each X in the tables means that the organisation has reported this type of violence.

7.1. The Kinds of Violence That Have Impacted the Rights to and Within Education During the Armed Conflict in Gaza

Different forms of violence are expressed in the selected documents. Even if these forms are sometimes described separately, they are often introduced as being interlinked, which results in a cumulative negative impact on Gaza children’s rights to and within education. Finally, a table presenting the data for each category related to the selected UN organisation is introduced to summarise the findings.

7.1.1. The Kinds of Violence with an Impact on the Rights to and Within Education

The thematic analysis shows that the rights to and within education, expressed in the conditions for the well-being of children in Gaza, are not guaranteed because of the forms of violence undertaken by Israel. Different forms of violence are still taking place, such as assassinations, the denial of food and water, the destruction of homes, the lack of medical help, the splitting up of families, and the difficulty in ensuring that children have free access to an equitable and inclusive education of quality in Gaza, as guaranteed by international legislation. Even the inaction of the international community to protect children in Gaza from Israeli attacks is experienced by Gaza’s children as a form of abandonment and detachment. In this way, international inaction can be interpreted as another form of violence to which children are subjected in this conflict.

Based on this thematic analysis, the following types of violence were identified:

Violence resulting in injuries and deaths.

OCHA reports that the MoH in Gaza published the breakdown of 50,021 Palestinians as of 22 March 2025. These reportedly include 15,613 children, 8304 women, 3839 elderly, and 22,265 men. According to the MoH, among the children killed, 825 were under 12 months of age, while 274 children were born and killed during the escalation.

(UNRWA 2025b)

Violence resulting in the lack of food and drinking water and the destruction of homes.

The Nutrition Cluster warns that the rapid deterioration in the rapid deterioration of the nutrition is already visible. In March alone, 3696 children were newly admitted for acuted malnutrition, out of 91,769 children screened—marking a sharp increase compared with February, when 2027 children were diagnosed from a total of 83,823 screened children. Furthermore, the escalation of hostilities since 18 March has severely undermined partners’ operational capacity to deliver nutrition services.

(OCHA 2025a)

Lack of electricity makes it difficult to activate distance learning in Gaza.

(OCHA 2023)

Violence resulting in the lack of medical help.

Healthcare also continues to come under attack. The World Health Organization (WHO) says that in central Gaza yesterday, a tent sheltering displaced people in the courtyard of the Al-Aqsa Hospital, in Deir al Balah, was reportedly hit, injuring five people. The agency added that the hospital’s internal medicine department also sustained some damage, and its oxygen supply line was affected.

(OCHA 2025c)

The health system is crippled, with 82 per cent of facilities in the Gaza Strip damaged or destroyed. Since the start of this conflict over 1100 attacks on health care have been recorded across the State of Palestine, targeting the right to health itself and creating long-term impact on the civilian population, particularly children.

(UNICEF 2024d)

Violence resulting in the lack of freedom.

UNICEF welcomes the release of the 12 children as young as 15 years old from detention in Israel, as well as young adults who were first detained as children. UNICEF has called to end to the detention of children in all its forms. UNICEF renews its call for the release of all hostages from the Gaza Strip, especially the two remaining children.

(UNICEF 2025a)

Violence resulting in the lack of economic resources.

THREE—COMMERCIAL: Humanitarian aid alone is not sufficient. The volume of commercial goods for sale in the Gaza Strip needs to increase, and increase fast. What is needed is at least 300 trucks of private commercial goods going in on a daily basis. This will help people purchase essential goods, relieve community tension, and stimulate the cash assistance programs offered by UNICEF and others.

(UNICEF 2024a)

Violence resulting in the loss of parents, orphanhood, and abandonment.

the problem facing many of Gaza’s children today is that they do not know where their parents are, whether they have been killed or are under rubble, or displaced to another location.… Though children with family networks might be taken care of by the extended family, those without extended family networks might be left alone—with older siblings often undertaking adult responsibilities well beyond their age, such as caring for younger siblings and looking for essential resources and services.

(Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge et al. 2024, p. 24)

Violence resulting in psychological crises.

Conducting an analysis on the impact of living under protracted crises on childrem, Save the Children (2022) showed that children in Gaza were experiencing higher levels of emotional distress (on average an increase from 55% to 80% from 2018 to 2022), manifesting in behaviours such as bedwetting (increasing from 53% to 79%) and reactive mutism (increasing from 42% to 59%).

(Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge et al. 2024, p. 20)

Violence resulting in forced displacement.

According to the UN, at least 1.9 million people—or about 90 per cent of the population—across the Gaza Strip have been displaced during the war. Many have been displaced repeatedly, some 10 times or more. Since the recent displacement orders were issued, more people have been forced to flee in search of safety.

(UNRWA 2025a)

According to OCHA, over two thirds (or 70 per cent) of the Gaza Strip are within the Israeli-militarized zone, under displacement orders, or where these overlap. OCHA reports that, by governorate, 100 per cent of Rafah is a no-go zone or a displacement area, followed by 84 per cent of North Gaza, 78 per cent of Gaza, 51 per cent of Khan Younis and 41 per cent of Deir al Balah. The UN estimates that nearly 430,000 people have been displaced yet again since the breakdown of the ceasefire.

(UNRWA 2025b)

Violence resulting in an increase in gender inequality or/and gender-based violence.

This situation is exacerbating pre-existing gender inequalities and vulnerabilities, with women and girls facing heightened threats and risks as they seek life-saving services and assistance. UNRWA shelters, government schools, public facilities, newly established tented settlements, and the few existing rented spaces holding displaced people are overcrowded and have limited capacities to offer water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services to meet the needs of the population. In Khan Yunis, shelters designed to host 2000 people are hosting 20,000, with close to 650 people accessing only one latrine facility.

(UN Women 2024, p. 5)

Violence resulting in a lack of confidence in the international community.

The children of Gaza are voicing feelings of abandonment by the international community. Interviewees often noted how children increasingly question the values around human rights, diversity and equality purported by the international community and the United Nations”.

(Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge et al. 2024, p. 26)

Violence resulting from the Israeli blockade.

“If the current more than 100-day blockade on fuel coming into Gaza does not end, children will begin to die of thirst … hospital generators [will] stop … and incubators [will] go dark,” stated UNICEF Spokesperson, James Elder, at a press briefing on 20 June. Referring to it as “a man-made drought”, he added: “This is Gaza’s most critical moment since this war on children began—a woeful bar to sink below. A virtual blockade is in place; humanitarian aid is being sidelined; the daily killing of girls and boys in Gaza does not register; and now a deliberate fuel crisis is severing Palestinians’ most essential element for survival: water.

(OCHA 2025b)

7.1.2. The Kind of Violence That Impacts the Right to Education

The different forms of violence resulting in a negative impact on Gaza children’s right to education became an obstacle to the right to education in the Gaza context.

At the same time, the thematic analysis of the documents shows forms of violence directed at educational material and human resources. Most of the school infrastructures have been destroyed or used as shelters for the Palestinian population escaping from the Israeli attacks. This systematic destruction of educational infrastructures hinders and impedes the fulfilment of the rights to and within education.

Based on the thematic analysis, the following types of violence limiting the right to education have been identified:

Violence against schools.

At least 320 schools have been used as shelters for displaced Gazans, over half of which were also hit by military strikes (Stack and Shbair 2024).

(UNESCO 2024, p. 243)

Violence against universities.

The lack of access to learning opportunities has an immediateimpact, and a longer-term effect, even more so given the related damage and destrtion of most university buildings.

(Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge et al. 2024, p.7)

Violence against cultural sites.

Since 7 October, UNICEF has sought opportunities to deliver timely, lifesaving messages to families and children in the Gaza Strip. This has been seriously limited due to the destruction of mass media broadcasting infrastructure (for radio and TV), the total interruption of electricity supply into the Gaza Strip and the destruction of mobile phone infrastructure, therefore limiting access to the internet. As a result, there are no radio stations broadcasting from within the Gaza Strip and access to the internet is uneven, inconsistent, and unreliable. Lack of fuel as a backup mechanism to run the communications infrastructure has also contributed to recurrent periods of total communications blackout.

(UNICEF 2024b)

Table 2. The coexistence of different forms of violence and organisations.

Kind of Violence	UNRWA	UNICEF	UNESCO	OCHA	UN Women
Violence resulting in injuries and deaths	X	X	X	X	X
Violence resulting in the lack of food, drinking water, homes/destruction of civil buildings/structures	X	X		X	X
Violence resulting in the lack of medical assistance	X	X		X	X
Violence resulting in the lack of freedom		X		X
Violence resulting in the lack of economic resources	X			X
Violence resulting in the loss of parents, orphanhood, and abandonment.	X	X	X		X
Violence resulting in psychological crises	X	X	X	X
Violence resulting in forced displacement	X	X	X	X	X
Violence resulting in blocked humanitarian help	X			X
Violence resulting in a lack of confidence in the international community	X
Violence against schools	X	X	X
Violence against universities	X		X
Violence against cultural sites	X		X

Table 2. The coexistence of different forms of violence and organisations.

Kind of Violence	UNRWA	UNICEF	UNESCO	OCHA	UN Women
Violence resulting in injuries and deaths	X	X	X	X	X
Violence resulting in the lack of food, drinking water, homes/destruction of civil buildings/structures	X	X		X	X
Violence resulting in the lack of medical assistance	X	X		X	X
Violence resulting in the lack of freedom		X		X
Violence resulting in the lack of economic resources	X			X
Violence resulting in the loss of parents, orphanhood, and abandonment.	X	X	X		X
Violence resulting in psychological crises	X	X	X	X
Violence resulting in forced displacement	X	X	X	X	X
Violence resulting in blocked humanitarian help	X			X
Violence resulting in a lack of confidence in the international community	X
Violence against schools	X	X	X
Violence against universities	X		X
Violence against cultural sites	X		X

7.2. The Victims of These Forms of Violence During the Armed Conflict in Gaza

The documents of the selected organisations show an alarming number of children being killed or injured. Different groups of children are referred to in the reports, for example, babies, orphaned children, unaccompanied and separate children, girls, and children with disabilities. They even show that children with disabilities, unaccompanied and separate children, and girls are particularly vulnerable groups. With reference to adults as victims, the report names cultural and educational workers like teachers, counsellors, school principals, and organisation workers. Pregnant and lactating women are presented as a special vulnerable group among adults.

Based on this thematic analysis, the following categories of victims of violence were identified:

Children as victims.

The Gaza Strip remains the most dangerous place in the world to be a child.

(UNICEF 2023, p. 14)

Among the child fatalities, 786 children are under one year of age, representing about six per cent of killed children whose full identification details have been documented, MoH further reported. Additionally, as of 7 October 2024, MoH noted that 35,055 children had lost one or both parents over the past year.

(UNRWA 2024)

Children with disabilities.

Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children (2024) reported that 73.7% of children were experiencing difficulties in expressing their feelings, with 96.7% of children with disabilities reporting that they suffer from continuous crying and panic attacks.

(Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge et al. 2024, p. 21)

Israeli children as victims.

According to Israeli sources, between 100 and 150 Israelis, including soldiers and civilians, some of whom are women and children, as well as some foreign nationals, have been captured and forcibly taken into Gaza.

(OCHA 2023)

Students as victims.

Over 76,000 students in Gaza were unable to sit for their general secondary examinations over the past two academic years.

(OCHA 2025b)

Cultural and educational workers as victims.

Teachers and counsellors struggle in the current war in Gaza, as their jobs involve listening to students’, teachers’, and other people’s concerns, and they develop secondary trauma while experiencing the losses of their own colleagues, families, and homes.

(Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge et al. 2024, p. 29)

Girls, women, and pregnant and lactating women as a special vulnerable group.

There is limited privacy for menstrual hygiene management for over 690,000 women and girls in Gaza.

(UN Women 2024)

Table 3. Kind of victims.

Kind of Victims	UNRWA	UNICEF	UNESCO	OCHA	UN Women
Children/babies	X	X	X	X	X
Israeli children		X
People with special diseases/learners/children/teachers with disabilities	X	X			X
Girls, women, and pregnant and lactacting women	X	X		X	X
People with special diseases/learners/children/teachers with disabilities	X	X			X
Orphaned children and uncompanied and separate children (UASC)	X	X			X
Students	X	X	X	X	X
Teachers, counsellors, school principals, deputy principals	X	X	X	X	X
Families	X			X	X

Table 3. Kind of victims.

Kind of Victims	UNRWA	UNICEF	UNESCO	OCHA	UN Women
Children/babies	X	X	X	X	X
Israeli children		X
People with special diseases/learners/children/teachers with disabilities	X	X			X
Girls, women, and pregnant and lactacting women	X	X		X	X
People with special diseases/learners/children/teachers with disabilities	X	X			X
Orphaned children and uncompanied and separate children (UASC)	X	X			X
Students	X	X	X	X	X
Teachers, counsellors, school principals, deputy principals	X	X	X	X	X
Families	X			X	X

7.3. The Kinds of Measures That Have Been Implemented in Educational Settings

The selected organisations enacted or proposed measures, including psychosocial and recreational measures focused on children’s psychosocial well-being as well as recreational activities, resources in the form of cultural or educational workers or extra economic resources; educational measures, in the form of specific educational content and teaching forms; and political measures, expressed as calls to stop the war. The educational measures present in the analysed document are distance teaching, basic knowledge of mathematics and languages, and the provision of mobile libraries. However, because of the intensive and ongoing armed conflict in Gaza, the educational measures are limited. The political measures are expressed in terms of political decisions to reach a permanent ceasefire.

Based on this thematic analysis, the following measures were identified:

Psychosocial measures/recreational measures.

And in Gaza since August 1 over 16,000 children living in our shelters have started activities that combine psycho-social support with basic literacy and numeracy, making UNRWA the largest implementer of education in emergencies in Gaza.

(UNESCO and UNRWA 2024)

Economic and human resources as measures.

As of 25 June 2025, Member States have disbursed approximately US$688 million out of the $4 billion (17 per cent) requested to meet the most critical humanitarian needs of three million out of 3.3 million people identified as requiring assistance in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in 2025, under the 2025 Flash Appeal for the OPT. Nearly 88 per cent of the requested funds are for humanitarian response in Gaza, with just over 12 per cent for the West Bank.

(OCHA 2025b)

Educational measures.

Some children attempt to continue studying through homeschooling or thanks to makeshift schoolhouses in camps and volunteer teachers (Stack and Shbair 2024). While the Palestinian Ministry of Education launched an e-learning initiative, lack of electricity and internet and constant displacement make it difficult to implement the model (Middle East Monitor, 2024).

(Middle East Monitor in UNESCO 2024, p. 243)

Political measures.

The ceasefire must continue to hold and all elements of the agreement must be implemented. It is a step in the right direction towards long-lasting peace and stability for all.

(UNRWA 2025c)

An immediate and long-lasting ceasefire is the only way to end the killing and injuring of children and their families and enable the urgent delivery of desperately needed aid. But while we continue advocating and pushing for that to happen, we urgently need:

• All access crossings into the Gaza Strip to open;
• Approval and inspection processes for aid to be faster and more efficient, and predictable;
• The resumption of commercial/private sector activities;
• The immediate entry of increased quantity of fuel that can go across the Gaza Strip;
• Reliable and uninterrupted telecommunication channels;
• Greater trucking and transportation capacity inside the Gaza Strip;
• Civilian infrastructure like schools and hospitals must be protected;
• And, access to the north of the Gaza Strip, to allow us to reach vulnerable children and families that are in desperate need of humanitarian aid.

“Finally, the two abducted Israeli children must be unconditionally and safely released.”

“This violence must stop now.”

(UNICEF 2024a)

Table 4. Measures according to the organisations.

Measures	UNRWA	UNICEF	UNESCO	OCHA	UN Women
Psychosocial measures/recreational measures	X	X	X
Economical and human resources	X		X	X
Educational measures	X		X	X
Political measures	X

Table 4. Measures according to the organisations.

Measures	UNRWA	UNICEF	UNESCO	OCHA	UN Women
Psychosocial measures/recreational measures	X	X	X
Economical and human resources	X		X	X
Educational measures	X		X	X
Political measures	X

8. Discussion

In this section, we discuss the findings of the text analysis using the chosen theoretical starting point to understand the complexity of the impact of the various forms of violence on children’s rights to and within education.

8.1. Interlinked Violence Understood as a Form of Pedagogy of Cruelty

Despite the legal framework protecting the rights to and within education in armed conflicts, the continued attacks on schools in places like Gaza starkly reveal the deep gap between legal obligations and their effective enforcement.

The forms of violence reported in the analysed documents affect education both directly and indirectly. A phenomenon of cumulative violence has been observed, where students’ right to education has been severely curtailed. This cumulative violence has been committed against Palestinian children in different interlinked forms and over several decades, not only after 7 October 2023. This interlinked form of violence has even affected Israeli children and their families, particularly during the Hamas attack on 7 October, in the form of torture, sexual abuse, assassinations, loss of families, and kidnapping.

In agreement with Segato (2003, 2018), we understand that these forms of violence against Palestinian and Israeli children who have been killed and kidnapped by Hamas can be seen as a model of domination and social control over the civilian population. The use of these extreme forms of violence even functions as a form of discipline for Israeli soldiers and Hamas combatants, in that it desensitises them to children’s suffering.

We can observe how the cruelty and excessiveness of the attacks show a new way of configuring armed conflicts, understanding their ideological dimension and the reinforcement of patriarchal structures that undoubtedly disadvantage women, people with disabilities, and children, especially girls, in different ways (Segato 2003). This aspect is relevant because, although the reports consider figures for these specific groups, the information is still limited in terms of incorporating dimensions that allow for a deeper understanding of the implications for these social groups.

Wars continue to be sustained under patriarchal and adult-centric structures, in which children are invisible in conflicts (Segato 2003). Although efforts have been made to make these groups visible in the reports, the interventions show that the focus is still diminished by the ways in which armed conflicts are understood.

The normalisation of violence and indifference to what has happened reveals how new wars demonstrate a social construction in which some subjects are considered collateral damage rather than subjects of rights. In the case of children, this scenario is even more dramatic. The ways in which the reports are constructed often resemble those of the media, in which the horror is evident and generates a paralysis in people that leads to indifference in a true pedagogy of cruelty (Segato 2003, 2018).

In light of the data, the mild response of the EU to extreme forms of cruelty against the civilian Palestinian population, particularly children, by suggesting that Israel could have breached human rights obligations under the trade agreement with the EU appears disappointing, as no sanctions or blockades against Israel are to be implemented.

8.2. Violence Understood as a Non-Recognition of Gaza Children as Rights Holders

Based on Ahmed’s concept of witness, we argue that the non-recognition of extreme physical and psychological violence against Palestinian children by an international organisation like the EU is also a non-recognition of them as rights holders in accordance with international legislation.

Using Ahmed’s concept as a theoretical tool allows us to understand how Israel has chosen repeated forced displacement as an extreme form of violence that signals that Palestinian children do not belong in the Gaza territory. The drastic replacement of 400 points of aid for the distribution of food to a few militarised distribution points has increased these forced displacements. The use of this extreme form of violence shows that Israel treats Palestinian children as having no place in Gaza’s social and spatial environments, such as schools, libraries, hospitals, points of aid, and homes.

Furthermore, it is relevant to note that the EU’s opposition to implementing sanctions against Israel and the international political failure to stop the extreme forms of violence being committed against the Palestinian population take place in a large juridical context that clearly prohibits these kinds of violence.

Key instruments, such as the Hague Convention (1907), the Geneva Convention (1949), and the Rome Statute (1998), highlight the attacks on civilians, the recruitment of children, and attacks on schools as war crimes by Israel in collaboration with other central actors at the global level. Maintaining political silence, omission, and directly supporting extreme forms of violence against Palestinian children are escalating. This extreme form of non-recognition of Palestinian children as rights holders goes against international documents condemning all forms of violence against children and educational institutions, such as the United Nations Security Council resolutions 1261 (1999), 1612 (2005), and 2427 (2018), Agenda 2030, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948).

This lack of recognition is the result of an embodied structure of perception in which certain children are seen as rights holders and others are not. In the context of armed conflict, the spatiality of whiteness positions children—particularly Palestinian children—as hypervisible, exposed and out of place within international humanitarian narratives. Their suffering is often rendered invisible or is only partially acknowledged, precisely because it occurs outside the normative boundaries of global empathy.

Here, whiteness, as an embodied structure of perception, shapes the struggle over Gaza’s territory—a dispute that also hinges on the differential conditions that allow some bodies, but not others, to inhabit, move through, and experience the territory. Military practices, coupled with the world’s silence, reveal how Palestinian children and their people have been forced from their homes and stripped of a place of their own. Here, the spatial logic at work deems their very presence inadmissible.

8.3. Violence Understood as a Form of Scholasticide

In addition, the extreme form of violence that is directed at educational institutions can be seen as a form of scholasticide (Nabulsi in Giroux 2025; Iriqat et al. 2025), where schools, libraries, universities, museums, students, and teachers all suffer.

It is important to understand these consequences from a social perspective, not only as an infringement of individual rights, since these reports tend to consider things from an individual perspective that exposes the totality of these situations, yet they tend to lack a social and cultural perspective in the analysis of their results. In this sense, the affectation of the rights to and within education is a social and cultural problem that has consequences for people in a cultural and identity dimension, known as scholasticide (Nabulsi in Giroux 2025; Iriqat et al. 2025). This aspect is often underreported in the reviewed reports.

The results show that there is a clear intention to attack educational facilities. Here, we can observe how the attacks on the area of education become more than a strategy of annihilating lives; instead, they are an ideological strategy of cultural and identity extermination, annihilating memory, critical thinking, and cultural transmission (Giroux 2025; Phipps 2024). On the other hand, schools and their crucial role in the processes of resistance are undermined. Not only are educational spaces and their infrastructures destroyed, but also their community spaces for social articulation and support. War attacks not only disarticulate a nation in the present but also have an impact on its capacity for future recovery.

From another perspective, the attacks on schools reveal the impossibility of establishing the conditions for a country’s economic emergence through new generations. Educational gaps have clear repercussions on the employment and economic prospects of citizens. It is clear that despite the official figures, resources continue to be limited, both in terms of incorporating a diverse view of children and the lack of involvement on the part of international institutions, thus generating a perception of abandonment.

Despite the fact that the indicators are fundamental for attracting international attention, as observed in the analysed reports, they tend to present a narrow view of the violation of rights in education, with a predominantly child rights perspective that does not always include a systemic, cultural, and structural view of the violation of the rights of the Palestinian people (Kapit 2024).

In the studied reports, the implementation of action seems to show a tendency for education to be positioned as secondary in relation to other types of financial requests, despite the extensive record of studies that establish the fundamental role of schools and education as safe spaces that allow for the establishment of secure conditions and are conducive to the socio-emotional well-being of students and communities in the context of armed conflict.

9. Conclusions

This contribution analyses and discusses the impact of various forms of violence on the rights to and within education during the armed conflict in Gaza. As shown in Table 1 above, the selection of documents for analysis was limited to documents from UN organisations due to the international legitimacy of the UN.

Based on UN reports (United Nations 2024b; UNICEF 2025b; Permanent Mission of France to the United Nations in New York 2025), we argue that the armed conflict in Gaza is a case showing the most extreme violence against children thus far. Therefore, by analysing UN organisations’ reports on the diverse forms of violence against children committed by Israel in the Gaza territory, this research shows the limitations of international legislation and the international community in protecting Palestinian children and their rights to and within education. It also shows how schools, universities, and other cultural institutions are expressed targets for Israeli attacks, resulting in a scholasticide of the Palestinian education system. In addition, the analysis of the selected UN organisations’ proposals for measures to support Palestinian children’s rights can contribute to our knowledge of the strategies for guaranteeing children’s education in other armed conflict contexts around the world.

By selecting United Nations organisations as sources based on their international legitimacy and recognised authority, this research intended to avoid the use of documents that could be regarded as Israeli- or Palestinian-biased. While these research findings clearly show that Israeli children are reported as victims of extreme violence committed by the Hamas attack against civilians on 7 October 2023, they also show that Israel’s extreme violence against Palestinian children did not start on that date. Rather, Israel’s current extreme violent acts in Gaza are part of a continuum of violence against the Palestinian population, including children, since 1948, which has never clearly been sanctioned by the international community. Furthermore, the prevalence of various forms of violence against children, their families and teachers reinforce the negative effects of Israel’s attacks on Palestinian children (see Table 2 and Table 3). In addition, the impacts of various types of measures proposed by the organisations (see Table 4) are limited by Israel’s intense and ongoing attacks on the Palestinian population.

Therefore, the pedagogy of cruelty implemented by Israel in the Gaza territory after 7 October 2023 cannot be understood as a legitimate response to the Hamas attack in Israeli territory. Nor can it be justified or minimised by referring to or juxtaposing acts of extreme violence committed against Israeli children by Hamas.

On the contrary, this research has shown the need for further studies focusing on the extreme and continuous forms of violence committed by Israel in the Gaza territory in order to better understand how this kind of pedagogy of cruelty can function as a continuum of violence despite the international legislation that prohibits it.

Finally, we argue that instead of becoming implicated subjects (see Rothberg 2019) who reproduce and legitimise this pedagogy of cruelty in different ways, we need to carry out critical research on how this type of pedagogy makes us insensitive to the suffering of children in Gaza. With this purpose, such critical studies need to be free from conceptions of social research based on value neutrality, particularly if this research intends to develop deeper knowledge about children’s human rights in extremely violent situations during armed conflicts.