A Palestinian teacher working for the U.N. agency in a Gaza school has revealed that a senior school official threatened to cut out her tongue after she objected to fellow teachers promoting hatred against Jews and encouraging children to support violence. The veteran educator, who has worked for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for 15 years, has warned that such teachings could lead to another attack like 7th October.
In an interview with the New York Post, the 40-year-old geography teacher said the threat came after she argued with another teacher over what she described as the indoctrination of young girls. According to her account, a school administrator later confronted her with scissors and warned her to stop speaking out.
Gaza teacher says she was threatened for refusing to teach kids to hate Jews: ‘We will cut your tongue’ https://t.co/L4Rm6sot8U https://t.co/KzCFaTylV5
— New York Post (@nypost) October 19, 2026
“[The school official] told me, ‘We’ll make you wish for death, and if you don’t stop arguing, we will cut your tongue,’ ” she recalled through a translator.
The teacher, whose identity has been withheld for her safety, said she was afraid to report the incident at the time because she feared that some school officials might have links to Hamas and that her family could face retaliation.
Teacher says colleagues promoted hatred against Jews
The teacher said she had joined UNRWA because she believed that a school run under the United Nations would protect children from Hamas’s terrorism. However, she claimed that her experience was very different from what she had expected. “I was shocked to find the reality was far different from what I had imagined,” she said.
She witnessed a sixth-grade history teacher blaming Jews for Palestinian suffering and presenting Hamas as a group that had emerged to correct historical injustices.
She also said that another teacher encouraged young girls to continue Hamas’s so-called struggle against Jews and later spoke proudly about the ideas she was teaching them. “I was really appalled by the ideas being told to those children,” the educator said.
She said that her decision to challenge these teachings led to the threats that eventually forced her to remain silent. The school where the confrontation took place in Gaza City has since closed during the war and has been turned into a shelter for displaced Palestinians.
Teacher warns of growing radicalisation after 7th October attack
The educator believes the situation has become more serious since the war between Israel and Hamas began. She said children who have experienced violence and loss are particularly vulnerable to teachers who blame Jews for Gaza’s destruction without acknowledging Hamas’s role in triggering the war.
“Today [the danger is] more intense than ever because the children are actually suffering from Israeli attacks,” she said.
She also revealed that some teachers who promoted extremist ideas before the war have returned to classrooms elsewhere in Gaza. The teacher further argued that some Palestinians condemn the suffering caused by the war without rejecting the 7th October attack itself. “They hate the consequences of October 7. They hate the war that October 7 brought upon them. But they don’t hate October 7 itself,” she said.
Her account raises concerns about the influence of extremist ideas in classrooms and the risks faced by educators who challenge them.
