After two years of war, the hum of lessons and conversations of classmates resound among the ruins of the former Lulwa Abdel Wahab al-Qatami school in the Tel al-Hawa district in southwestern Gaza City, reports the BBC.
What is the situation in schools in the Gaza Strip?
How many school-age children are there in the Gaza Strip?
Why was the school in Tel al-Hawa destroyed?
What is the importance of returning to schools for children in the Gaza Strip?
The school was destroyed by shells in January 2024, and in the following months its grounds served as a shelter for displaced families. Today it is once again a place of learning – albeit in a more basic form.
According to UNICEF data, over 97 percent schools in the Gaza Strip were damaged or destroyed during the war. The Israel Defense Forces has repeatedly claimed that Hamas is using civilian infrastructure, including schools, to conduct warfare, but has rarely provided solid evidence of this.
Of the 658 thousand school-age children living in the Gaza Strip, most did not have access to formal education for almost two years, reports the BBC. “Now something extraordinary appears: a fragile hope of returning to the childhood they once knew,” the station emphasizes.
