The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said on Tuesday it would postpone the academic year for over 11,000 students at the Ain Al-Hilweh “Palestinian refugee camp” in southern Lebanon until further notice, the Xinhua news agency reported.
The UN agency made the decision on the grounds that armed groups still occupy the UNRWA schools in the area after recent clashes between Fatah movement and Islamist activists.
UNRWA further said it is monitoring the situation to secure suitable educational spaces for all students in the camp to start the academic year as soon as the situation allows, adding that it will keep parents of students informed of any updates later.
"The militants still control all eight UNRWA schools in the camp, which were subjected to major damage and destruction, while the schools in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon are sheltering displaced families," said Dorothee Klaus, director of UNRWA Affairs in Lebanon.
"The schools in the vicinity of the camp must be safe so that children can attend," she added, stressing that enabling more than 11,000 UNRWA children in Sidon to obtain education is the top priority of the agency.
A ceasefire agreement was reached two weeks ago between the fighting factions after the latest wave of violence in the camp claimed about 20 lives and injured more than 150. Previous ceasefires had collapsed within hours.
Ain al-Hilweh is home to more than 54,000 registered refugees and thousands of Palestinian Arabs who joined them in recent years from neighboring Syria, fleeing the civil war there.
Lebanese residents who are registered as “Palestinian refugees” and their descendants who were born in that country reside in residential neighborhoods known as "refugee camps", have limited work options and are refused citizenship.
Lebanon refuses to naturalize the “Palestinian refugees” and has stressed the need to work for their return to their country of origin, which Palestinian Arabs claim is Israel.