The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has sounded alarm over the fate of education in Gaza, warning that more than 660,000 children have been deprived of schooling for a third consecutive year, Anadolu Agency reports.

“The war in Gaza is a war on children and it must stop. Children must be protected at all times,” UNRWA said in a statement, cautioning that the enclave’s youth are at risk of becoming a “lost generation.”

While schools in the occupied West Bank are set to reopen on September 1, Gaza’s classrooms remain shuttered.