PA schools celebrated Oct 7 attacks in teaching and assemblies in aftermath of massacre - report

Palestinian Authority schools celebrated the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, even using them as part of teaching and assessments, and praising them in school assemblies,  Palestinian Media Watch revealed in a recent report. 

Shortly after the Oct. 7 massacre, a third-grade teacher in a PA school decided to capitalize on celebrations of the attacks throughout the Palestinian territories, using them to teach math. 

She asked students to create a math problem as part of classroom teaching, posting the best examples to the school’s Facebook page. 

“Create a verbal math question based on the war in Gaza, using 9 X 150,” the students were instructed. 

The school posted pictures of seven answers to their Facebook page, along with the teacher’s comments. 

One 3rd grader created an exercise involving Israeli casualties in response to the prompt. 

“Multiplication exercise: The Al-Aqsa Flood [Hamas’ name for the attacks]:”
“At least 150 Israelis were killed in one day. What was the number killed in nine days?”
“Solution: 9 X 150 = 1,350 killed.” 

The teacher commented: “May Allah protect you! Excellent!” 

Another student also created an exercise using Hamas’ rocket launches on Israel during the attacks. 

“Al-Qassam Brigades fired 150 rockets at Israel for an hour. How many rockets did they fire in nine hours?”
“Solution: 9 X 150 = 1,350 [rockets].” 

The teacher responded: “Excellent! May Allah protect you!” 

Still another student used the number of Hamas fighters participating in the invasion as the basis for a multiplication problem. 

“Al-Qassam Brigades sent 150 Jihad fighters to [each of] nine settlements in Israel. How many Jihad fighters entered the settlements?” 

“Answer: 1,350 Jihad fighters.” 

“May Allah protect you, champion! Victory to the residents of Gaza!” the teacher responded. 

Other students focused on the suffering of Palestinians, blaming Israel for the number of Gazans killed in the war effort. 

“In Gaza City, at least 150 children die as Martyrs [daily]. How many child Martyrs are there in nine days?” the student wrote.
“9 X 150 Martyrs = 1,350 [child] Martyrs.” 

“May Allah protect you! Wonderful! Mercy and peace to the Martyrs of Gaza!” the teacher commented. 

Still another student used the evacuation of Gazans due to the Israeli bombing campaign as the basis for a math exercise. 

“Nine trucks carrying displaced people left northern Gaza. Each truck [had] 150 people. What is the number of people in nine trucks?” the student asked.
Answer: “9 X 150 = 1,350 people” 

The teacher praised this response, “Excellent! May Allah protect you! Allah's mercy to our Martyrs!” 

The teacher praised all the responses in the student’s notebooks as “Excellent” or “Champion,” giving them “smiley” stickers as well as a blue stamp of the PA Ministry of Education. 

At the same time, numerous PA schools featured readings and posters celebrating the Oct. 7 attacks, referring to the murder, death, and torture of Israelis as “a beautiful dream” and the source of “laughter.” 

In one school assembly, just days after the Oct. 7 attacks, a young girl described waking up “to the sounds of laughter.”  

“That day went down in history... We woke up to the sounds of laughter. There are those among us who thought he was dreaming, but it is a beautiful dream that he never wants to wake up from... It was impossible to express the emotions in our hearts, and we never imagined such pride in our people on our faces. The sense of honor that we felt is indescribable,” said the student from the Kharas Girls' Elementary School on Oct. 12, 2023. 

This is how Palestinian Authority schools celebrated rape, torture, burning people alive, and the murder of 1100 people on Oct 7.
One kid out of many. One school out of many. pic.twitter.com/g7UeyWE4X8

— Palestinian Media Watch (@palwatch) August 26, 2026

That same day, at the Deir Al-Sharaf Boys School, a young student read a message praising a “flood of blood,” incorporating Hamas’ name for the attacks. 

The revolution is coming, coming.
In Jerusalem, we will raise a flag, and it will return to its people.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' [Brigades] and [Islamic] Jihad, heroes who raise our heads.
Gaza is free and without worry, we liberated it in a flood of blood.
To Gaza on the day of victory shall I sing, and I will sing to it.
Oh, bullets of the revolutionaries, ululate on the land of the Martyrs and greet it with peace.
Let the whole world hear: Gaza is free and will not kneel.” 

This message was also posted that the Deir al-Sharaf Boys School Facebook page. 

A month later, at another girls elementary school, a student read out the following message during a morning assembly, which was shared to the school’s Facebook page: 

“Good morning, Gaza, a morning of victory, Gaza, a morning of glory and fame, a morning of heroic Martyrs, a morning of child Martyrs.
Good morning, oh people of the Resistance [Hamas], as you play the anthem of victory with bullets and rifles.
Good morning, O you who stand guard like lions in tunnels and trenches, Good morning, O men of heroism, O men of power.” 

The report by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) again draws attention to the longstanding issue of glorification of terror in Palestinian curricula, both in the Palestinian Authority’s schools and in the United Nations Relief and Works Agency’s (UNRWA) schools. 

Several European countries have pledged to end funding of PA education if reforms to the curriculum are not made, removing such content. However, in practice, those nations have accepted pledges from the PA to conduct such reforms, without ensuring they are implemented. 

PMW, along with other organizations, such as the UK-based Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-SE), have found that the PA’s national school curriculum has not been reformed to eliminate inciting and hateful elements, despite repeated promises to do so.