{"id":311612,"date":"2025-09-24T09:29:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T13:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?post_type=document&p=311612"},"modified":"2025-09-25T11:49:39","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T15:49:39","slug":"remarks-by-unrwa-cg-24sep25","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/remarks-by-unrwa-cg-24sep25\/","title":{"rendered":"Remarks by UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini at the UNGA Side-Event \u201cCall to Action for Palestinian Children in the West Bank and Gaza\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

24 September 2025<\/p>\n

Your Majesty,<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ladies and gentlemen,<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear friends,<\/strong><\/p>\n

For millions of children worldwide, September means going back to school.<\/p>\n

Back to learning and play in a safe and nurturing environment.<\/p>\n

But not in Gaza.<\/p>\n

At the start of the war, I visited a school in Rafah, hosting thousands of displaced people.<\/p>\n

I am still haunted by the eyes of a little girl pleading for a piece of bread and a sip of water.<\/p>\n

Her school had been transformed into a shelter, and she was learning only how to survive \u2013 in her own school.<\/p>\n

Since then, the children of Gaza have continued to spiral downward into the abyss of hell.<\/p>\n

Every day, for nearly two years, the equivalent of a classroom full of children has been killed.<\/p>\n

For the survivors, returning to school is a distant dream.<\/p>\n

They have lost nearly four of the last five academic years due to conflict, COVID-19, and displacement.<\/p>\n

There is a point when learning losses become irreversible.<\/p>\n

In the occupied West Bank, as we saw in the video, Palestinian children are deeply impacted by military operations and displacement.<\/p>\n

They live in constant fear.<\/p>\n

Their education is regularly disrupted.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dear friends and colleagues,<\/strong><\/p>\n

Education has always been a prized possession for Palestine Refugees \u2013 the only asset from which, until now, they could not truly be dispossessed.<\/p>\n

Attacks on education are attacks on the identity and future of Palestinian children.<\/p>\n

For seventy-five years, UNRWA has provided free basic education to millions of Palestine Refugee children across the region.<\/p>\n

We reached gender parity in our schools in the 1960s and introduced human rights into our programmes in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

Today, 660,000 children in Gaza are out of school, traumatized, hungry and bereaved.<\/p>\n

It should be our collective priority to bring them back to a learning environment.<\/p>\n

The longer they stay out of school, the greater the risk that they will become a lost generation, sowing the seeds for future violence and extremism.<\/p>\n

UNRWA, with its partners, has plans and ample capacity to support a phased return to formal education in Gaza, once a ceasefire is achieved.<\/p>\n

In the occupied West Bank, nearly 50,000 children continue receiving an UNRWA education, despite military incursions and movement restrictions.<\/p>\n

Amid a deepening financial crisis affecting Palestinian Authority schools, UNRWA schools have absorbed some 3,000 additional students in the last two years \u2013 underscoring our vital, stabilizing role.<\/p>\n

UNRWA is an invaluable asset for implementing today\u2019s Call for Action.<\/p>\n

I appeal for your support in safeguarding our mandate and work \u2013 which are under attack \u2013 so we can continue making a tangible difference in the lives and future of millions of Palestine Refugee children.<\/p>\n

Thank you.<\/p>\n

Related item:<\/em><\/p>\n