Gaza educational year to start without textbooks

Israeli authorities have been impeding entry of 300,000 textbooks from the occupied West Bank into the blockaded Gaza Strip, jeopardizing the new school year in the coastal enclave that is set to begin on Sunday.

PA Ministry of Education has approved a new curriculum for grades 1-4 and distributed the new textbooks to all schools in the occupied West Bank, while most textbooks for Gaza were printed in presses located in the Gaza Strip itself.

However, 30,000 Math and Science textbooks bound for Gaza were printed in the West Bank, “which Israel has so far denied entry to the Gaza strip,” PA Minister, Salih said.

He said that the ministry arranged the shipment of the 300,000 textbooks with the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

Salih added that Palestinian Authority official institutions and human rights groups should do their best to secure the entry of textbooks to the Gaza Strip.