CAIRO, November 12. /TASS/. Over 12,000 schoolchildren and students have been killed in Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank since October 2023, the Palestinian Education Ministry said in a statement.

"Since the start of Israel’s aggression against Gaza, a total of 12,061 schoolchildren and students have been killed in the enclave and the West Bank," the statement reads, according to the WAFA news agency. Most of the fatalities (11,946) were recorded in Gaza. The ministry added that 19,467 schoolchildren and students had suffered injuries.

The statement also points out that Israeli air strikes and shelling attacks on Gaza, along with raids of the West Bank, have killed 564 school and college workers, including teachers and professors. A total of 3,729 Palestinian education workers have been injured.

According to the ministry, Israel has targeted 441 educational facilities, completely destroying 77 schools. Since October 2023, some 788,000 Palestinian teenagers and young people have been deprived of the opportunity to go to school and attend university classes in Gaza and the West Bank.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when militants from the radical Palestinian movement Hamas staged a surprise attack on Israeli territory from Gaza, killing residents of Israeli border settlements and taking over 240 hostages, including women, children and the elderly. In response, Israel launched a military operation in the Palestinian enclave to destroy Hamas military and political wings and free all hostages. Hostilities in the Gaza Strip continue to this day.