They are tied up in cargo, and danger is approaching. But the children of Gaza are happy to go back to school

Mona Al-Zanati is happy that her son is back at school, although she lives in fear every time he is out of sight.

“Every hour he’s away from me, I feel scared,” Al-Zanati, 45, told CBC News.

“If I hear one or two strikes, I immediately send someone to the school to check on them. A few days ago they were late for school.

His 10-year-old son, Yamen, is among tens of thousands of children in the Gaza Strip who are resuming their education after two years of Israeli bombardment.

He attends a makeshift school made of green plastic tents in the ruins of the northern community of Beit Lahiya. It is in the hands of the so-called “yellow line” that now divides Gaza under the terms of a ceasefire since October.

Despite the ceasefire, parents and teachers say students are not safe, and Israel’s ongoing blockade of Gaza means many children lack even basic school supplies.

‘A time where children go to learn’

UNICEF, which runs several makeshift schools in Gaza, says it is doing everything it can to give students the tools they need to succeed. But spokesman James Elder says Israel has banned items such as pens, pencils and notebooks from entering Gaza.

“There are children, maybe one in five or more, who have a piece of paper. Sometimes they write on the back of a piece of paper that has already been written on it,” Elder told CBC Radio host Nil Köksal. As It Happened. So I will go into the tents and see how tall the children are.

The CBC has reached out to the Israeli government for comment.

Despite these obstacles, Elder says there is tangible joy in the classrooms he visited.

On a recent trip to a school run by UNICEF in Jabalia, he says a happy girl told him how happy she was to have her friends again, and to have the opportunity to make new ones.

“It’s surprising when you see 50 children in the classroom but it’s very quiet when the teacher speaks,” said Elder.

“They long for that education, so they are happy to be honest, to be there.

At the North Education School in Beit Lahiya, seven-year-old Toulin Al-Hindi expressed that.

“Even though we don’t sit on the seats, we thank God that we started going to school,” he said. “During the war, there were no schools, and we were bored.”

Safety is not guaranteed

Israel’s latest war with Hamas began on October 7, 2023, after Hamas-led terrorists attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people and abducting 251, according to Israeli officials.

Over the years, Israel has killed more than 71,000 people in Gaza and displaced more than 90 percent of its population, according to the enclave’s health ministry.

Aid group Save The Children estimates more than that 20,000 children were killed, while UNICEF says more than that 58,000 children lost one or both parents.

At the International Court of Justice in The Hague, South Africa accused Israel of killing people in Gaza, which is alleged is supported by the human rights organization Amnesty International. Israel has repeatedly denied this.

Under a ceasefire negotiated late last year, Israel still controls more than half of the Gaza Strip and detains civilians from other areas. Almost all buildings in the Israeli-controlled sector have been leveled and the residents evicted.

Although major fighting has stopped, Israel often opens fire on Palestinians, accusing them of approaching the yellow line, saying it aims to eliminate threats to the army.

More than 440 Palestinians have been killed since the October accord came into force, and the army killed three Israeli soldiers.

Staff at Yamen and Toulin’s school say they hear gunfire every day.

“We have taught the children that as soon as we hear a fire… to sleep. This is not safe, and safety depends on God, but this is what we can do,” said Yara Abu Ghalweh, the head of the school.

UNICEF cannot guarantee the safety of children in its schools, said Elder.

“You would like to say that everywhere is safe,” he said. “But children continue to be killed in peacetime.”

High value in education

Still, concerned parents are willing to take the risk.

Before the war, Palestinians had one of the highest literacy rates in the world, according to the 2018 Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.

But a recent report from the University of Cambridge estimates that children in Gaza will have lost the equivalent of five years of schooling due to repeated school closures since 2020, first due to COVID-19, then the war.

So despite her fears, Al-Zanati, Yamen’s mother, who was expelled from Khan Younis, enrolled him in school the minute she knew.

“We are very close to the yellow line, so some nights go by where we don’t sleep at all,” he said.

But, come morning, when things seem calm, you send him to school.

“You must be studying,” she said. “You are a child.”