GAZA SCHOOLS STILL FILLED WITH DISPLACED DESPITE SCHOOL YEAR START

Bethlehem, 16 Dzulqa’dah 1435/11 September 2014 (MINA) – 63,000 Palestinians are still living in temporary shelters for displaced located in Gaza schools even though the academic year is set to begin in four days, a UN official said on Tuesday.

United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees public information officer Adnan Abu Hasnah told Ma’an that 29 of the agency’s schools were still being used to house the displaced more than two weeks after the end of the Israeli offensive, despite efforts to find other shelter.

At the height of the Israeli offensive in late July and August, around 485,000 Palestinians were forced to flee their homes in the biggest sudden mass displacement in the region since Israel’s 1967 invasion of neighboring countries, including Gaza, Maan News Agency quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting, Thursday.

At the end of hostilities, it was estimated by the UN that 110,000 had become permanently homeless due to the destruction of their homes.

Abu Hasnah told Ma’an that UNRWA is working to concentrate those who are still staying in schools in just 15 schools to allow the other 14 schools to be used for classes beginning Sunday.

Double-shift schooling will be put into operation in the 252 schools affiliated to the UNRWA, he added.

7,800 teachers have received a two-day training on how to deal with individuals traumatized by disaster so as to be able to equipped to handle their students.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that 373,000 children across the tiny coastal enclave will require direct and specialized psychosocial support and that “children are showing symptoms of increasing distress, including bed wetting, clinging to parents and nightmares.”

The numbers include 1,500 children who were orphaned during the war. (T/P002R03)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)