Israel has killed more than 800 Palestinian teachers and injured over 3,300 others since the start of its war on Gaza in October 2023, the Palestinian Education Ministry said on Sunday.
In a statement ahead of World Teachers’ Day, observed annually on October 5, the ministry said educators across the occupied Palestinian territories are fighting “a real battle for survival” to protect the right to education amid systematic targeting.
The education sector in Gaza and the West Bank has suffered “comprehensive genocide” since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, the ministry said.
The ministry said more than 170 teachers remain detained “in harsh conditions.”
It said movement restrictions and harassment at hundreds of checkpoints have compounded educators’ daily suffering, particularly in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, the village of al-Mughayyir in the central West Bank, the Jordan Valley and areas classified as Area C.
Under the 1995 Oslo II agreement, intended as an interim arrangement, the West Bank was divided into Areas A, B and C.
Area A is under Palestinian civil and security control, while Area B is under Palestinian civil administration and Israeli security control. Area C, which accounts for about 60 percent of the West Bank, remains under full Israeli control.
The ministry said abuses against Palestinian teachers have been accompanied by severe financial hardship, undermining their material and psychological stability as Israel withholds Palestinian tax revenues.
Known as clearance revenues, the funds are taxes collected by Israel on behalf of the Palestinian Authority on imported goods and transferred under the 1994 Paris Protocol.
Israel began deducting sums from these revenues in 2019 and subsequently halted transfers, worsening the Palestinian Authority’s financial crisis and its ability to pay public employees’ salaries in full.
Clearance revenues account for approximately 56 percent of total Palestinian public revenues, making their withholding a major obstacle to paying salaries, providing public services and meeting government obligations.
The ministry urged the international community, the UN, and education and human rights organisations to take urgent action to curb violations and provide international protection for students and education personnel.
It also called on unions worldwide to press for the release of detained teachers and withheld financial entitlements to ensure educators can live with dignity.
