In a city exhausted by war, and with a memory burdened by the sound of bombing and the smell of gunpowder, the children of Gaza return to the schools they forcibly left for more than two years.
They return as if they are paving a path through the rubble towards life, carrying their few notebooks with all their hope and white space for dreaming.
Deir al-Balah Common Basic School affiliated with UNRWA, which was once a haven for displaced people, today receives them as education classrooms, adjacent to tents and breathing the effects of war.
Education has stopped since the 1970s. The ancient Kamaliyya School opens its doors to Gaza students whose schools were destroyed by the occupation during the Israeli war.
But despite everything, the sound of the bell rises again, and the children’s voices grow louder with it, as if together they are announcing a new beginning in a city that does not forget but does not give up.
“We want to get our lives back”
The child, Lama Abu Al-Atta, placing her bag on her shoulder, said in a tone of hope: “We want to get our lives back. What we need now are notebooks, books, and pens.”
Next to her stands her colleague Mayar Abu Saada, her eyes trying to make up for what she missed from childhood: “We want to study all the subjects as before… Now we only have Arabic, English, and mathematics. We want to learn and play like other children.”
Shelter and school
The return is not ideal. Painful scenes are still present: tents spread across the square, cooking utensils at the entrances to classrooms, and blankets spread on floors that were once students writing their futures on.
Maryam Basalah describes the moment that when she returned, she found the area destroyed… and the displaced people are still here, stressing the completion of the march.
Broken chairs, cracked blackboards, walls bearing marks of shrapnel… However, the students cling to their notebooks like a lifeline.
Teacher Hanin Karaz says that the return of students is not ideal at all, but it is a must, stressing the need to advance education after it was destroyed by Israel over the course of two years of genocide.
She pointed out that students receive education in an inappropriate atmosphere, as there are no seats, no stationery, and no appropriate atmosphere.
However, she added that it is a necessity, “the Palestinian’s capital is education.”
UNRWA: Education is a right, even in rubble
UNRWA spokeswoman Enas Hamdan says: “More than 62,000 students have benefited from temporary education programs since August 2024, in addition to about 300,000 students receiving distance learning, with the participation of 8,000 teachers in Gaza.”
She stressed in a press statement that the children of Gaza have the right to have a chance at life, dignity and education.
Palestinian Information Center
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