Talal AlhathalAs a crippling famine grips Gaza amid Israel’s relentless bombardment of besieged Palestinians since 2022, two emergencies are unfolding in tandem: hunger and the lack of education.
Past experiences in crisis zones have shown us that education and nutritional well‑being are intertwined as two fundamental pillars of survival – and must be protected as such.
Over 70,000 children and 17,000 mothers in Gaza currently face acute malnutrition, according to UNICEF, and Israel’s forced starvation has killed 367 Palestinians.
Public health experts warn that even after physical rehabilitation, malnourished children risk permanent cognitive damage, developmental delays and chronic diseases.
Meanwhile, Gaza’s education system lies in rubble.
Humanitarian assessments show that over 87 percent of school buildings have been damaged or destroyed, leaving an estimated 625,000 students out of school since October 2023.
Two years of education have already been lost for many children and university students – an outcome that must worry us all.
When schools and universities are destroyed and food disappears, young minds face a double emergency that robs them of survival today and of a future tomorrow.
Research consistently confirms that malnutrition and hunger impair attention, memory, and learning capacity, especially among children. Displaced children exposed to trauma and deprivation often struggle cognitively long after the conflict ends.
According to a new Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis, more than half a million people in Gaza are “trapped in famine, marked by widespread starvation, destitution and preventable deaths”, and aid agencies report catastrophic hunger levels among children and the collapse of local food systems.
The World Food Programme and UNICEF warn that treatment supplies for malnutrition may run out by mid‑August, while deaths continue to rise.
The collapse of education system
This is not abstract theory; it is a generational crisis.
Without access to both food and education, children and youth risk becoming a “lost generation”, unable to regain their academic and developmental momentum.
The world is witnessing this man-made crisis unfold in real time.
The academic journeys of youth in Gaza have been interrupted by war, displacement, and now, hunger.
Since the onset of the war on Gaza, thousands of students and their families have lost homes, schools, and access to basic services – including food.
For nearly two years now, this rite of passage has been suspended for tens of thousands of students.
Israeli bombardments have closed classrooms, displaced families, and left many students studying – if at all – in overcrowded shelters where the sound of air strikes has been replaced by the quieter but no less devastating sound of empty stomachs.
One of the most critical milestones in a Palestinian student’s life is the tawjihi exam— Gaza’s high‑school leaving exam that determines university eligibility and future career prospects.
To restore a measure of hope, Education Above All foundation, in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme, are enabling over 90,000 students to sit for their exams through 100 multipurpose education centres across the besieged enclave.
However, these centres can only be effective when the violence ends and supply lines for food and learning materials can reopen safely.
Here and now
International aid often treats education as a post‑crisis concern, something to resume only after hunger is addressed. But when famine strikes, the human mind starts to shrink, too.
Delaying education until “after the crisis” risks irreparable loss: scars on learning, trauma unresolved, future potential unrealised.
That is why it is crucial to find ways to maintain learning under siege, such as delivering digital lessons where possible, incorporating psychosocial support into every interaction, and campaigning for the day when school‑based feeding programmes can resume at scale.
In regions hit hard by crises, school‑based feeding programmes have proven effects: they improve attendance, increase dietary diversity, and offer protective nutritional buffers.
When schools shut, those children lose both education and essential meals.
Because in a place where over half the population are children, and more than 70 percent face extreme food insecurity, restoring education is not just about textbooks and classrooms.
Loss of schooling and mass starvation are not just separate tragedies; they compound each other. Without timely interventions, the entire fabric of Gaza’s future risks unravelling.
As the world marks the sixth observance of the International Day to Protect Education From Attack on September 9, the focus should be on protecting young minds from the corrosive effects of conflict and restoring dignity in the midst of despair.
