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Remarks by UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini at the UNGA Side-Event "Call to Action for Palestinian Children in the West Bank and Gaza"

UNRWA

24 Sep 2025

New York

Your Majesty,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Dear friends,

For millions of children worldwide, September means going back to school.

Back to learning and play in a safe and nurturing environment.

But not in Gaza.

At the start of the war, I visited a school in Rafah, hosting thousands of displaced people.

I am still haunted by the eyes of a little girl pleading for a piece of bread and a sip of water.

Her school had been transformed into a shelter, and she was learning only how to survive - in her own school.

Since then, the children of Gaza have continued to spiral downward into the abyss of hell.

Every day, for nearly two years, the equivalent of a classroom full of children has been killed.

For the survivors, returning to school is a distant dream.

They have lost nearly four of the last five academic years due to conflict, COVID-19, and displacement.

There is a point when learning losses become irreversible.

In the occupied West Bank, as we saw in the video, Palestinian children are deeply impacted by military operations and displacement.

They live in constant fear.

Their education is regularly disrupted.

Dear friends and colleagues,

Education has always been a prized possession for Palestine Refugees - the only asset from which, until now, they could not truly be dispossessed.

Attacks on education are attacks on the identity and future of Palestinian children.

For seventy-five years, UNRWA has provided free basic education to millions of Palestine Refugee children across the region.

We reached gender parity in our schools in the 1960s and introduced human rights into our programmes in the 1990s.

Today, 660,000 children in Gaza are out of school, traumatized, hungry and bereaved.

It should be our collective priority to bring them back to a learning environment.

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.

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

In the occupied West Bank, nearly 50,000 children continue receiving an UNRWA education, despite military incursions and movement restrictions.

Amid a deepening financial crisis affecting Palestinian Authority schools, UNRWA schools have absorbed some 3,000 additional students in the last two years - underscoring our vital, stabilizing role.

UNRWA is an invaluable asset for implementing today's Call for Action.

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

Thank you.