DaysofPal – After two years of relentless Israeli bombardment, famine, and devastation, Palestinian children are slowly returning to what remains of their schools in Gaza. Under the fragile ceasefire, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has begun reopening “temporary learning spaces,” offering a fragile glimpse of normalcy amid the ruins.
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said that more than 25,000 pupils have rejoined in-person classes, while another 300,000 are expected to resume online learning. Yet in many areas, the idea of a school bears little resemblance to what it once was.
At Al Hassaina School in Nuseirat, classrooms are gutted, desks and chairs are gone, and walls still bear the markings of families who once sought refuge there during the war. Children now sit cross-legged on bare floors, notebooks balanced on their laps, as they try to learn amid the remnants of destruction.
“I’m in sixth grade now, but I lost two years of schooling because of displacement and the war,” said 11-year-old Warda Radwan, one of many young students returning to class for the first time since 2023.
On Saturday, dozens of children gathered in the school courtyard, chanting “Long live Palestine!” before crowding into overcrowded classrooms that still carry the scars of conflict.
“Since October 7, 2023, there hasn’t been any school for our children,” said Jenin Abu Jarad, a relative of one of the students. “All they could do was fetch water or play in the streets. Thankfully, classes are finally resuming.”
But the price paid by Gaza’s education sector over the past two years is devastating. Since the start of the Israeli war on October 7, 2023, schools and universities across the occupied Palestinian territories have been systematically targeted.
Palestinian authorities report that 18,877 students and education workers have been killed and 33,652 wounded since the war began. In Gaza alone, 17,237 students and 741 staff members were killed, while 25,000 students and more than 3,000 teachers and workers were injured. In the West Bank, 108 students were killed, 741 wounded, and 379 arrested, while among educational staff, five were killed, 21 wounded, and 182 detained.
Universities have also suffered heavy losses, with 1,532 university students and staff members killed and more than 4,300 wounded. The majority of the casualties were in Gaza, where entire campuses have been flattened by airstrikes.
The war has brought Gaza’s education system to near total collapse. Most UNRWA and government schools were either converted into shelters for displaced families or destroyed in Israeli attacks. Formal schooling stopped completely on October 8, 2023, and for nearly two years, children were left without classrooms, teachers, or learning materials.
Now, as a tenuous ceasefire allows for limited rebuilding, UNRWA’s reopening of temporary learning spaces marks a fragile step toward recovery. But the challenges are immense.
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