Back to school – but not for the 625,000 students of Gaza

The start of the school year in Gaza is special, marked by a palpable excitement in the air as thousands of students gear up for a new academic journey.

Many eagerly look forward to inching closer to the futures they've always dreamed of.

As a teacher, I deeply miss the start of the new school year.

I would feel like a student myself, with that sense of anticipation for the first day back - excited to meet my new fifth-grade students.

A week or two before the start of school I used to renew my energy by buying stationery, gifts and equipment for my lessons.

I took a lot of care putting together a new study plan that made science less rigid and more fun for my students.

Ruwaida in the classroom with her students, working on crafts in March 2023 [Ruwaida Amer/Al Jazeera]

The days before school started were also memorable for parents.

The markets would be crowded with parents and their children, there to pick out school uniforms and stationery. Children would be asking for their favourite stationery.

Gaza had many popular stationery shops including Pens and Pins, where every child dreamed of buying their school supplies. That shop brought so much joy to so many children, it was like a close friend.

Gaza had many well-known stationery shops, including Pens and Pins [Instagram]

On their first day of school, children are always beaming, as if the sun is shining out of their faces, bringing a smile to everyone's face.

I used to shop for new clothes as well because I loved to meet my students looking nice.

After three months of summer vacation, students would be excited to return to school and resume their daily routines.

I miss my school and its daily routine.

A Palestinian girl playing in the courtyard of a UNRWA school, on October 9, 2023 [Ruwaida Amer/Al Jazeera]

'I miss washing school uniforms'

All of this disappeared because of the war. We still can't believe that we've lost everything in this war on Gaza.

There is a deep sense of sadness among the parents and students.

Instead of getting back to school, at least 625,000 children are out of school.

[Al Jazeera]

"I haven't stopped crying since the beginning of August - the month at the end of the summer vacation”, Lina al-Saadi, 37, a displaced mother from Gaza City, tells me.

Lina has four children who she would normally be preparing for school.

“What saddens me the most is thinking about my daughter, Kenzi, who was supposed to be in the first grade. I would think about how her school uniform would look and what I would do with her hair each morning to make her look beautiful.” Lina adds.

She now lives in a tent where her daughter spends most of her day playing in the sand while her three sons search for water.

“They have lost their education, their lives and everything they love. When I look at those tents near the camp and hear the sound of children studying inside, I cry. Is this what we dreamed of for our children? To end up in a tent, sitting on the sand, studying this way?"

Palestinian students study in a makeshift tent camp as schools remain closed due to Israel's military offensive, in Khan Younis, the southern Gaza Strip, on April 28, 2024 [Ramadan Abed/Reuters]

In a voice barely audible from the depth of her sadness, Lina says: "I miss making school sandwiches every morning. I miss washing school uniforms and spending the whole day thinking about what I will prepare for them for lunch.

“I miss looking forward to Fridays to rest from waking up early every day to prepare them for school. I miss gathering them around me to study for exams and refusing social invitations during the exam period.

"I miss being a mother with children in school. Now, I am in a tent, struggling to find water and figuring out how to cook on the fire.

"This is a monotonous, terrifying routine with the ongoing war, bombings and displacement from one place to another."

Palestinians displaced by the Israeli war on Gaza walk in a makeshift tent camp in Khan Younis on June 18, 2024 [Jehad Alshrafi/AP Photo]

Lina isn’t the only one sad over her children losing their education.

Samar Barbakh, 32, a mother of two from Gaza City’s Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood, also reflects on what her daughter Masa, a second-grader, and son Saeed, a third-grader, are missing.

"I used to take my children to school and walk a little by the sea on the way home. I miss that a lot. We mothers feel a different sense of responsibility during the school year. We have different tasks, not just cooking, cleaning and housework.

“Days pass without any hope of ending this war. Our children's future is slipping away,” Samar weeps.

'I can't believe that we will lose this year, too'

Rima al-Kurd, 11 and a seventh-grader, says she misses her mathematics teacher, Salma, the most. "I love her so much; she's very kind and used to give us goodbye gifts at the end of the school year.

“I miss break time when I would sit with my friends, and we would laugh. This war is very long and terrible. Every day, my mum tells me it will stop soon, but it doesn't. I can't believe we'll lose this year, too. I always pray for the war to stop so I can return to my home in Rafah.

"I don't like going to classes in tents. I only love school, and I understand my lessons there. I want to return to it and hope this war will end soon."

[Al Jazeera]

More than 85 percent (477 out of 564) of Gaza’s school buildings have been destroyed by Israel’s continuing bombardment.

Students have been deprived of a full academic year, and now the world is beginning a new school year without Gaza.