Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children are returning to school after the summer holidays, though major US cuts to the UN relief agency have thrown their funding into jeopardy beyond next month.
Children wearing checkered uniforms and backpacks thronged schools across the Palestinian territories for the first classes of the new school year, AFP correspondents reported.
Palestinian school student study at their school that was demolished by Israeli authorities in the area of Khallet al-Daba south of Yatta in the city of Hebron on August 29, 2018. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said all 711 schools it runs for 526,000 pupils in Gaza and the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria would reopen in the next few days despite the $300 million US funding cut.
Pupils gather in front of a school run by the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza City on August 29, 2018, on the first day of classes after the summer holidays. (AFP PHOTO / Mahmud Hams)
Fears raised by UN chief Antonio Guterres that the schools might not be able to reopen at all failed to materialise but UNRWA warned it might still be forced to close them again in a month if addition new funding is not found.
“At the moment, we do not have enough money to keep the schools open after the end of September,” UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness tells AFP.
“At the end of September, UNRWA will be running on empty for all its services, including schools and medical facilities.”
— AFP
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