Gaza children yearn for school days before war
STORY: This ruined building in the southern Gaza Strip used to be Abed al-Qara and Muhammad al-Fajem's school.
The 10-year-old friends from eastern Khan Younis, traumatized from six months of war, stare at its destroyed shell.
Once a place of learning, the school is now riddled with bullets.
Papers are scattered across gutted classrooms. Posters peel off the walls. Damaged books line the floors.
It's a grim reminder of their studies and time spent with friends.
For fifth grader al-Qara, those days feel like a distant memory.
“What is this destruction? Destruction. We used to study in these schools, and we used to play in the playground. They would bring us the toys. We would go out during recess. We would go to the classroom and walk around. The principle would come to the classrooms. He would give us the books. We would go there and see who is coming and going; we would stand at the school gate. We were living (well).”
The battered school represents the shattered dreams of many young Gazans, and highlights all they have lost since the conflict began.
Hamas militants from the enclave attacked Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking over 200 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's retaliatory air and ground offensive has killed over 33,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities.
Much of Gaza looks just like this - reduced to rubble and wasteland.
That includes many schools, which, with children making up about half of Gaza's 2.3 million population, have a critical place in society.
Palestinians across the densely packed enclave face severe shortages of water, food, medicine and healthcare.
Many young students who were hungry to learn, are now simply hungry.
They wonder if they will ever be able to pack their books and go back to school again.
Sat on the school's rubble, teacher Muhammad al-Khudari reflects on the wide-scale ruin of Gaza's education system.
“There is destruction on the level of educational institutions and spaces, (resulting) in the destruction of educational life. There is destruction of universities. Almost all of the Gaza Strip’s universities have been destroyed; almost all schools have been destroyed, along with kindergartens. There is complete destruction of the Gaza Strip and the education sector of the Gaza Strip."
Gazans of all ages are desperate for signs that the fighting will end. But there are none.
Mediators have failed to narrow differences between both sides enough to secure a ceasefire, despite proposals being passed back and forth.
Still, some like al-Fajem have not lost all hope, despite having lost friends in the conflict.
He says he was a high achiever in class, and hopes to study in tents instead.
“This is the school that we lived in," he says. "It was the best school.”
