Gaza Children Return to Classrooms After Years of War

Children in Gaza have returned to school as the new academic year begins, despite widespread damage to classrooms and shortages of basic learning materials.

For many pupils, the return marks their first sustained opportunity to resume normal school life after years of war and repeated displacement.

At a school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Nuseirat, some classrooms have no desks. Children sit on blankets spread across the floor, while others use old desks damaged during the conflict.

The disruption has affected far more than classroom facilities. Many children have spent years moving from one shelter to another to escape airstrikes and shelling.

Some also spent their days helping their families find food and water instead of attending classes, playing with friends or following normal school routines.

For some families, the reopening of schools has therefore brought a welcome sense of normality.

Asmaa Al-Hour, whose two children attend the school, said she found a familiar environment when she arrived, including a morning assembly and a welcome from school officials.

She said her son had waited since dawn to return to school after watching his older siblings attend classes.

Al-Hour also said her daughter, now in the fourth grade, attended school for only the first month before the conflict disrupted her education.

According to her, the girl spent the following three years hoping she would have the opportunity to return to a classroom.

UNRWA said more than 280,000 children now attend classes in its schools and educational tents across Gaza.

Tawfiq Al-Hourani, head of UNRWA’s education programme, said the agency wants to improve learning conditions and restore its schools to the standard they had before the war.

He said UNRWA had 182 fully equipped schools three years ago, but the conflict destroyed or damaged more than 95 per cent of them.

According to Al-Hourani, displaced people still occupy many of the schools that remain standing, further limiting the space available for education.

Schools resumed operations last November following the October ceasefire, but the education system continues to face severe pressure.

Damage to school buildings remains widespread, while several facilities continue to serve as shelters for families displaced by the conflict.

The scale of the disruption became clearer in figures released by UNICEF earlier this year.

As of April, about 700,000 children aged between four and 17 in Gaza had missed formal face-to-face schooling for almost three years.

UNICEF also estimated that about 420,000 children had received no in-person education at all since October 2023.

The return to school has therefore restored classroom routines for hundreds of thousands of children, but major gaps remain.

Teachers and education officials still face damaged facilities, shortages of equipment and the continued displacement of families.

For children who have spent years away from classrooms, however, the reopening offers more than lessons. It provides a chance to reconnect with friends and regain part of a routine that war had taken away.