The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) lamented the closure of schools in East Jerusalem enforced by Israeli forces last Thursday.

“Nearly 800 boys and girls are missing their classrooms, their teachers, and their friends,” the UN agency said in a post on X.

“Schools that have been providing education for decades now stand silent, and the daily life of these children has been shattered,” it added.

Calling for the immediate reopening of schools, the UNRWA said, “the criminalisation of Education at UN schools in East Jerusalem by Israeli authorities is reprehensible at all levels.”