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Israel’s occupation has ‘catastrophic impact’ on Palestinian generation
Samah Jabr, head of the mental health unit in the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Health, has spoken to Al Jazeera about the “catastrophic impact” of Israel’s occupation in both Gaza and the West Bank.
“The traumatic events created by military violence are affecting every Palestinian, and younger minds are more prone to be affected. We see that among children and young people,” she said, speaking from occupied East Jerusalem.
Jabr added that children in the besieged and bombarded Gaza Strip are being prevented from attending schools, which are not only meant to be safe places, but also places for cognitive and social stimulation, which “will impact the future of this generation”.
She also said that as soon as a ceasefire is put into place in Gaza, the health and education systems should take priority because “they will create the foundation for a rehabilitation for the Palestinian community affected by war and violence”.
Israel’s onslaught on Gaza students’ education is a crime: Hamas
The group has issued a statement saying that this crime “will not break our people’s will, or erase their identity or take away their national rights”.
On its official Telegram channel, Hamas said the denial of 630,000 students of their right to education is a “deliberate violation to all rights stipulated by international laws, which leaves the international community and UN agencies responsible to put an end to these crimes”.
With the start of the school year in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, without the Gaza Strip, Hamas reiterated: “The Israeli war against schools and educational workers and facilities will not succeed in erasing our children’s Palestinian identity. These crimes will only be met with more perseverance by our people.”
Israel operations worsening ‘calamitous’ West Bank situation: UN’s Turk
Major Israeli raids across the occupied West Bank are worsening an already “calamitous” situation that has been deepened by settler violence, the UN rights chief has said.
Opening a session of the global body’s Human Rights Council in Geneva, Volker Turk decried soaring violence in the West Bank amid major Israeli operations.
“In the West Bank, deadly and destructive operations, some at a scale not witnessed in the last two decades, are worsening a calamitous situation there, already aggravated by serious settler violence,” Turk told the council.
Israel’s military on August 28 launched simultaneous raids across several cities and refugee camps in the northern West Bank, killing at least 36 Palestinians, according to health officials.
Turk also highlighted that nearly 10,000 Palestinians are being held in Israeli prisons or military facilities, “many arbitrarily”, and said that more than 50 have died “due to inhumane conditions and ill-treatment”.
He also stressed that “ending that war and averting a full-blown regional conflict is an absolute and urgent priority”.
