Like other parents, Feras, a 45-year-old baker, withheld his last name, fearing threats from Israeli security services for speaking to the press. His 13-year-old daughter, one of 300 children from the Shuafat refugee camp, did not have a back-to-school day on Monday, September 1. More than 30,000 people live in the camp, which is surrounded by high concrete walls. The neighborhood is separated from the rest of East Jerusalem, which has been illegally occupied by Israel since 1967. "I looked, but I couldn't find anywhere," the father said, standing in one of the camp's narrow alleyways.

This Monday should have been a normal first day back at school, as it was for more than two million students in Israel and in the annexed territories of East Jerusalem. But six schools operated by the United Nations agency for the occupied territories (UNRWA) remained closed in East Jerusalem, including three in the Shuafat refugee camp – a pocket of poverty, and now rising crime, long neglected by Israel. "Many parents begged me to take their children. I wish I could, but I simply don't have enough room," said the head of one school, playing a just-recorded voicemail: "This is a mother calling for help." Across Jerusalem, about 600 children had not been assigned a school, according to non-profit organizations, worsening absenteeism, which is already higher than in other parts of the city that are better resourced for education.

The school closures date back to May. Israeli military forces raided and closed all UNRWA schools in East Jerusalem. The authorities said they were enforcing a 2024 law that bans all UN agency activity on Israeli soil as a retaliatory measure taken after October 7, 2023. They claimed that some UNRWA staff were involved in the terrorist attack launched by Hamas from Gaza. However, the agency denied this accusation after its own investigation, except in the case of a handful of individuals.

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