The start of the school year in Gaza is a special time, marked by a palpable excitement in the air as thousands of students prepare for a new academic journey.
Many are looking forward to getting closer to the future they have 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 graders.
A week or two before classes started, I used to replenish my energy by buying office supplies, gifts, and materials for my classes.
I took great care to develop a new curriculum that would make science less rigid and more fun for my students.
The days leading up to the start of the school year were also memorable for parents.
The markets were crowded with parents and their children, who came to choose school uniforms and school supplies. The children asked for their favorite stationery.
Gaza had many popular stationery stores, including Pens and Pins, where every child dreamed of buying their school supplies. This store brought a lot of joy to many children, it was like a close friend.
On the first day of school, children are always beaming, as if the sun is shining on their faces, bringing a smile to everyone’s face.
I also used to buy new clothes because I loved seeing my students well dressed.
After three months of summer vacation, students will be excited to return to school and resume their daily routine.
I miss my school and its daily routine.
“I miss washing school uniforms”
All of this has disappeared because of the war. We still can’t believe that we lost everything in this war against Gaza.
There is a deep sense of sadness among parents and students.
Instead of returning to school, at least 625,000 children are no longer in school.
“I haven’t stopped crying since the beginning of August, the month that marks the end of summer vacation,” Lina al-Saadi, 37, a displaced mother from Gaza City, tells me.
Lina has four children whom she normally prepares for school.
“What makes me saddest is thinking about my daughter, Kenzi, who was supposed to be in first grade. I thought about what her school uniform would look like and what I would do with her hair every 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 fetch water.
“They lost their education, their lives and everything they loved. 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 like this?”
In a voice barely audible in the depths of her sadness, Lina said, “I miss making the school sandwiches every morning. I miss washing the school uniforms and spending all day thinking about what I’m going to make them for lunch.
“I miss waiting for Friday to rest, getting up early every day to get my kids ready for school, gathering them around me to study for exams and turning down social invitations during exam time.
“I miss being a mother with children in school. Now I am in a tent, struggling to find water and wondering how to cook on the fire.
“It’s a monotonous and terrifying routine with the war going on, the bombings and the moving from one place to another.”
Lina is not the only one who is sad that her children have lost their education.
Samar Barbakh, 32, a mother of two from Gaza’s Tal al-Hawa neighborhood, 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 along 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 other tasks, not just cooking, cleaning and household chores.
“Days go by with no hope of ending this war. The future of our children is fading away,” Samar cries.
“I can’t believe we’re going to lose again this year”
Rima al-Kurd, 11, a seventh-grader, says she misses her math teacher, Salma, the most. “I love her so much, she is very kind and used to give us farewell gifts at the end of the school year.”
“I miss the breaks, when I would sit with my friends and laugh. This war is very long and terrible. Every day my mother tells me that it will end soon, but it doesn’t. I can’t believe that we are going to lose this year again. I always pray that the war will end so that I can go back home to Rafah.
“I don’t like going to class in tents. I like school and I understand my lessons there. I want to go back and I hope this war will end soon.”
More than 85 percent (477 out of 564) of Gaza’s school buildings have been destroyed by Israel’s continued bombardment.
Students were deprived of a full school year, and now the world begins a new school year without Gaza.
