Ahmad Awad wants to be a doctor when he grows up. The 13-year-old loves school and studies hard. The only problem is that his school is now in a tent — a makeshift classroom set up in central Gaza.

"My school has been destroyed, and the remaining schools have been turned into shelters and humanitarian centres. This has made it very challenging to continue learning in the usual school environment," he said.

"I live as a refugee. The situation is dire. We rely on soup kitchen to eat. There is no food, no flour, nothing."

Ahmad is one of a small number of Gazan children who can continue their education amidst the war. He attends a temporary learning space set up by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), which has erected tents and repurposed buildings to provide basic classes for as many children as possible.

"We have been deprived of education for a long time, and I truly love learning. I am grateful to be in this school, even though it is set up under a tent," Ahmad said.

Most schools damaged by war

UNICEF said most children in Gaza could not access any kind of education and the temporary schools were a stopgap measure for a small number of children.

"We have been able to support more than 50,000 children. The number has decreased due to the collapse of the ceasefire, the intense bombardments and the population displacement," UNICEF spokesman Jonathan Crickx told the ABC.

"We used to be able to support 100,000 children just a few months ago."

Mr Crickx said most of the million children in Gaza were "accumulating a huge learning gap".

"In the Gaza Strip today, you have nearly 90 per cent of all the schools and school buildings which have been damaged to a certain degree," he said.

Many of Gaza's school buildings have been turned into temporary shelters for displaced Palestinians.

This school in Deir al-Balah has been turned into a shelter for displaced people. (ABC News)

Some have been bombed by the Israeli military.

The UN said since Israel's military resumed bombing Gaza in March and began re-occupying large parts of the strip, 59 temporary learning spaces and 57 schools run by the Palestinian Authority have been forced to close, stopping education for 40,000 children.

An analysis by the UN's Satellite Centre, UNOSAT, found that since the war started, more than 70 per cent of school buildings in Gaza have been directly hit.

About 62 per cent of the school buildings that have been turned into shelters have also been directly hit, according to the analysis.

UNOSAT said 501 out of the 564 school buildings in Gaza needed to be reconstructed or required major rehabilitation work to be functional again.

"We remained without education for over a year and a half in Gaza," 13-year-old Mohammad Iyad Sabbah told the ABC.

"When we pass by our former schools and we see the refugees inside, I feel sad because I don't understand why I should not be learning despite the war."

'No place is safe'

The teachers working in the temporary schools are often displaced themselves. Zakaria Kafarna is living with his family in a school building, while teaching in a temporary learning space.

"Education is a basic right for any child. Despite the dire situation and the Israeli attack on Gaza, it is our duty to resume education for children," he said.

Zakaria Kafarna teaches his son Adam in the school building where they are now living. (ABC News)

"We have decided … to resume classes, even if it is basic. We are asking for official education for everybody but schools are being destroyed and targeted."

His colleague Abdulrahman Qannan said the students were often absent due to bombing, food scarcity or other threats.

"We are teaching under severe circumstances," he said. "The tents are very hot and it's very hard for the students to be here because no place is safe because of the continuous bombing.

"The students are coming here without any kind of protection [from] the air strikes and the artillery. Before the seventh of October, 2023, we used to have so many schools that were fully provided with the things that make the process of education easy for the teachers and for the students themselves, but nowadays we have a severe lack of the raw material, of the things that teachers use to help the students complete their education."

The few schools still operating may soon be abandoned as Israel starts a new offensive in Gaza. (ABC News)

New offensive will force more schools to close

Israel has begun a new offensive against the militant group Hamas in Gaza, which is expected to forcibly displace a large proportion of Gaza's population to the south of the strip.

Many of these schools will have to be abandoned and their students will again soon be without lessons.

It could be some time, possibly several years, before they get back into a classroom and resume their education properly.

UNICEF said it would take years to rebuild schools. (ABC News)

"I think that children have an immense capacity to cope and recover. But for that to happen.. you need a ceasefire. You need the release of the hostages, and you need to have the possibility to rebuild schools," Mr Crickx from UNICEF said.

"You would need to identify first … what kind of construction material is allowed inside the Gaza Strip in order to rebuild those schools. And then many teachers were among the people who were killed in the past 19 months of war. So it's a very, very difficult question to answer. But what we know for sure is that it will take at least several years."

Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation.