September 30 has been named in the calendar of the Islamic Republic as the day of solidarity with Palestinian teenagers and children due to the martyrdom of "Mohammad al-Durrah", a Palestinian teenager.
On September 30, 2000, (9th of Mehr in the Iranian calendar) in the early days of the second intifada (the Al-Aqsa Intifada), a picture of a 12-year-old boy named Mohammed al-Durrah was broadcast on television, hiding behind his father to escape the bullets fired by the Israel military.
The shocking incident, which was recorded and broadcast by French television, ended with the martyrdom of the child.
The teenager was martyred when he was shot in the head by Israeli snipers with the aim of killing him, and this incident caused the media to cover every aspect of this incident in the world. The martyrdom that made Muhammad al-Durrah a symbol of resistance and the day of innocent Palestinian children.
Every year, Tehran hosts a conference on solidarity with Palestinian children and youths.
The event is convened on the occasion of the martyrdom of Mohammad al-Durah and other martyred Palestinian children and youths.
The event highlights the ongoing plight of those born under the Israeli occupation and blockade. Human rights groups have long blamed the Israeli regime for deliberately targeting Palestinian children.
Since 2008, the Israeli regime has waged three wars on the Gaza Strip killing and maiming thousands of children. During Israel’s 2014 war on Gaza, Israeli forces killed over 2,200 Gazans, including hundreds of children.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners Society, the Israeli regime has detained more than 9,000 Palestinian children across the occupied territories over the past seven years.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced that at least 41,586 Palestinians have been martyred in the Gaza War since last October, the New Arab reported.
The war in the enclave has also left 96,210 civilians wounded, the ministry added.
Education under attack: Israel bombed 16 schools in Gaza in one month
According to a statement by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, since the beginning of August, Israel has bombed 16 schools used as shelters in the Gaza Strip, killing 217 Palestinians and injuring hundreds – many of them women and children.
The current war in Gaza has severely disrupted the education of all the 625,000 students and impacted the lives and livelihoods of the 22,564 teachers, the UN reported.
Between October 2023 and July 2024, almost all school buildings in Gaza have been either entirely or partially destroyed following Israeli military strikes.
As of August 2024, OCHA reports figures from the Ministry of Health that identify these attacks have killed over 40,000 Palestinians, including 10,627 children and 411 teachers (OCHA, 2024b).
Furthermore, these attacks have resulted in at least 94,000 Palestinians injured, including 15,394 students and 2,411 teachers. Many more are unaccounted for.
The extent of the most recent damage and disruption to Gaza’s education system underscores the urgent need for attention to education in humanitarian frontline planning to restore education now, and to plan for the rebuilding of the education system as soon as there is a permanent ceasefire.
The war has severely disrupted educational opportunities, and has made Palestinian children and youth, and society, increasingly vulnerable to a range of risks, including disability and trauma.
The lack of access to learning opportunities has an immediate impact, and a longer-term effect, even more so given the related damage and destruction of most university buildings.
It is imperative for the international community to act now and with urgency to uphold the right to education for Palestinians.
What the latest figures say
Around 17,000 Palestinian children have been killed in Israel’s ongoing war on the Gaza Strip since last October, according to local authorities on Sunday.
“Around 25,973 Palestinian children now live in Gaza without one or both parents due to the Israeli aggression,” Ismail al-Thawabta, who heads Gaza’s government media office, Anadolu Agency reported.
He said at least 16,859 children, including 171 infants, have been killed in Israeli attacks since Oct. 7, 2023.
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has repeatedly warned that “Gaza’s children have endured unimaginable horrors” under relentless Israeli attacks.
Reported by Tohid Mahmoudpour
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