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You're watching UNICEF Television.

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Students in the Palestinian territories are beginning a new semester,

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after violence and strikes last year kept many away from their studies.

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In the West Bank, a strike called by unpaid teachers in the fall

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cancelled classes for more than 750,000 children,

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including these students at a girls' school in Marta,

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a village north of Jerusalem.

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I am happy because I came back to school,

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because I learned so many important things in it.

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Last year, more than 120 Palestinian children under 18

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were killed in the armed conflict.

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Mariam Al-Araj, the principal of the girls' school,

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says she has seen its effects on her students.

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When students came back to school, we faced enormous challenges,

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one of the most important being the amount of work for everyone,

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students, teachers and principals.

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Also, we noticed a change in their behavior.

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There appears to be more violence in it.

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Two-thirds of the population in Gaza and the West Bank

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live below the poverty line,

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and many families struggle to send their children to school.

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With the help of the Saudi Committee for the Relief of Palestinian People,

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as well as other donors,

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UNICEF has provided school supplies and teacher training

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to schools across the region.

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Given the environment in which the children live,

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both in West Bank and Gaza,

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we have to do one thing, and that is to protect education for children.

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It is of utmost importance that we guarantee

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that children have a right to quality education.

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This school in Gaza City, Al-Tufa School,

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enrolls 870 female students, most of them poor.

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Their salaries paid, teachers are now back in the classroom,

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where these children need them to be.

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This is Val Wong, reporting for UNICEF Television.

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Unite for Children.