UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini has said that a ceasefire in Gaza would be the “critical first step” to getting the children there back to school.

“Wherever we work, UNRWA is dedicated to helping children be children,” Lazzarini said on X, recalling the agency’s efforts in Lebanon.

“A CeasefireNow in Gaza will be the critical first step to getting these children back on the path of education,” the UNRWA official stressed.

“In Gaza, amidst the humanitarian disaster, for the past four months our teams have been delivering Back-to-Learning sessions for thousands of displaced children for whom formal education halted in October 2023,” he said.

“Through recreational and psychological support activities plus basic literacy and numeracy exercises, we are trying in the most desperate of circumstances to do what we can to ensure that these children do not become a lost generation.”