After two years of fighting, Gazan children are gradually returning to school.

Palestinian – (Special Correspondent / Web Desk) – UNRWA, the UN organization for Palestinian refugees, stated this week that following the commencement of the ceasefire in Gaza, several schools in the enclave would reopen, with children progressively returning to courses.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told X on Tuesday that more than 25,000 kids have already joined the agency’s “temporary learning spaces,” with another 300,000 doing online sessions.
Classes had just resumed at Al-Hassaina School in western Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, despite a classroom deficit.
Warda Radwan, an 11-year-old pupil, expressed excitement about returning to her normal learning regimen.
“I am in sixth grade now, but I lost two years of schooling because of displacement and the war,” she told me.

During the two-year war between Israel and Hamas, Al-Hassaina, like many other UNRWA facilities throughout the territory, became a shelter for dozens of displaced families.

Their presence was still visible in the lines of laundry strung across the building’s three floors.

Radwan explained that classes “are restarting slowly” as the school is emptied of the families living there.

Then, she said, she and her classmates “can continue learning like we did before.”

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In the school’s courtyard on Saturday, young girls lined up for the morning assembly, performing stretching exercises under their teachers’ supervision and chanting: “Long live Palestine!“

As classes began, about 50 girls crammed into a single classroom, sitting on the floor with no desks or chairs.

They responded enthusiastically to the teacher’s questions and eagerly copied the lesson from the blackboard into their notebooks, happy to be back in school after two years.

Another classroom hosted a similar number of older girls in their teens.

The conditions were identical — all sitting on the floor with notebooks resting on their laps.

Jenin Abu Jarad, a relative of one of the students, said she was thankful to see the children back in classes.

“Since Oct. 7, there has not been any school for our children,” she said.

“During this time, all they could do was fetch water, get food, or play in the streets. But thankfully, about a week to ten days ago, schools began reopening gradually,” she added.