Learning activities resume in Gaza despite schools lying in ruins

For 15 months, Gaza’s children were barred from schooling as schools in the Palestinian enclave were either destroyed or turned into shelters for displaced families.

Since the Israel-Hamas war started, hundreds of thousands of school-aged children have lost at least one academic year.

After the ceasefire that paused the war in January, authorities managed to rehabilitate dozens of schools across Gaza.

“We’re trying to salvage what we can be salvaged of the educational process,” said Mohamed al-Asouli, head of the education department in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis.

Last year, 39,000 students were unable to take their final test in school education, known as Tawjihi.

Some children resorted to online learning during the war.

Samia Barbakh, a displaced woman from the southernmost city of Rafah, registered her children at a school in Khan Younis when authorities announced that some schools were reopened earlier this year.

“All online learning is useless because the mother is the one who is doing homework, not the child,” she said.

According to the U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF, more than 95% of Gaza’s 564 school buildings have been damaged, with about 88% requiring significant reconstruction.

This has impacted 785,000 school children and university students.

Nesma Zaroub, another displaced woman from Rafah, said it was difficult for her children to resume their schooling online, citing a lack of electricity and internet access.

“Online (learning) is very difficult because the mobile phone is not always charged, and we only have one mobile phone at home,” she said.

Israeli bombardment and ground operations have transformed entire neighborhoods in several cities into rubble-strewn wastelands, with blackened shells of buildings and mounds of debris stretching away in all directions.

Critical water and electricity infrastructure is in ruins. Most hospitals no longer function.

The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 people.

The war killed more than 48,000 Palestinians and wounded over 111,000 others, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza.

The ministry says women and children make up most of the dead but does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its toll.

Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.