3 years of Gaza genocide: over 20,000 students and 263 journalists killed, Palestinian officials say

Gaza,
Palestinian Ministry of Education figures show that 20,748 students and 1,058 education and administrative staff have been killed during three years of Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank. In a statistical report on Israeli violations against the education sector, the ministry said the figures also include thousands of injuries and arrests among students and staff of schools and universities, as well as dozens of educational institutions destroyed or targeted.
In Gaza, 19,189 school students and 1,386 university students have been killed, and a further 28,586 school students and 3,082 university students injured. The ministry said 805 school education and administrative staff and 246 university staff were killed, while 3,298 school staff and 1,493 university staff were injured.
In the occupied West Bank, 134 school students and 39 university students were killed, and 871 school students and 283 university students injured. Israeli forces also detained 416 school students and 481 university students. Seven school staff were killed and 26 injured, while Israeli forces detained more than 176 teachers and school employees and 21 university staff.
263 media workers killed
Ismail al-Thawabta, director of the Gaza Government Media Office, told Anadolu that Gaza’s journalists are paying a heavy price in the three-year war: 263 have been killed in Israeli attacks. Since October 2023, 50 journalists have been detained in Israeli prisons, 23 of whom remain in custody. Three journalists are still missing: Nidal Suhail al-Wahidi, Haitham Jamal Abdel Wahid and Ahmed Issam al-Agha.
Palestinian officials and press organizations say the three years of war have had a devastating effect on Palestinian journalists, with hundreds more wounded, detained or displaced. Journalists have lost homes, workplaces and family members, and many move between bombed sites, displacement camps and hospitals to keep reporting. They remain the main source of on-the-ground coverage because Israel is barring foreign journalists from entering the territory.
Al-Thawabta said Israeli attacks damaged or destroyed 16 satellite TV offices, 11 radio outlets, 12 newspaper and magazine offices, 23 digital media organizations, 27 printing houses and five unions and rights groups involved in media work. He estimated losses to the media sector at roughly $1 billion, including premises, equipment, broadcast vehicles and technical gear.
On September 7, the International Federation of Journalists said the number of journalists killed in Gaza is the highest in modern journalistic history. The Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said earlier that those killed include 27 women journalists, while about 500 were wounded. It estimates Gaza had about 1,200 journalists, meaning more than a fifth have been killed during the genocide.
The syndicate says 60 to 75 percent of surviving journalists, an estimated 700 to 900, have lost their homes or been forcibly displaced, and that more than 80 percent of media offices and institutions have been fully or partially destroyed. Journalists are forced to report from tents, displacement sites and areas around hospitals amid shortages of electricity, internet access, protective gear and cameras. The report also lists many slain journalists, including Bilal Jadallah, Muntasir al-Sawaf, Samer Abu Daqqa, Hamza al-Dahdouh and Anas al-Sharif, killed in 2025 in tents and hospitals.
Since October 2023, Israel’s genocide in Gaza has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 175,000, with about 90 percent of the territory’s infrastructure damaged or destroyed. Over the same period, Israeli forces and settlers have intensified attacks in the occupied West Bank, killing 1,210 Palestinians, wounding about 13,350 and detaining more than 24,600.