More than half of Gaza’s children (620,000) are unable to attend school due to the destruction wrought by six months of conflict on the enclave’s education system, warns the UN’s children’s fund (UNICEF), Al Jazeera reports.

Eight out of every 10 schools in Gaza are damaged or destroyed, with about 10 percent of the facilities totally decimated, said UNICEF.

But rebuilding the schools will be a simpler task than dealing with children’s trauma and loss of education, said David Skinner of Save The Children.

“What’s often lost about the coverage of Gaza is that this is a catastrophe for children,” Skinner said. “These are children who have been bereaved, who have lost people, who are sick and malnourished.”