Gaza City – Early on Saturday morning, Rana Totah held her two sons’ hands as she walked them to school in al-Katiba, Gaza City, watching them return to a routine they had almost forgotten. For Totah, 30, the morning was more than the first day of a new school year. It was a return to family life interrupted by nearly three years of war and displacement after Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza began in October 2023.
Displaced from Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood to al-Katiba in western Gaza City, Totah spent the previous night preparing her children for their first day back in face-to-face education. She made sure they slept early the night before, then woke them, dressed them and brought them to school. It even felt like Eid,” Totah told Al Jazeera.
I prepared them as if it were a normal school day.” The Gaza Municipality school was set up in about 10 tents in the western Gaza City neighbourhood as a temporary space for a return to face-to-face education. During the war, including when the family was in Khan Younis, Totah tried to keep her four children in education through informal learning via volunteer-led initiatives. But attendance was irregular, with the dangers of war and the struggle to find necessities a priority for parents, teachers and students.
Ultimately, survival came before school, and her children took on essential tasks such as fetching water, despite Totah’s pleas for them to focus on learning. They would think about things like, ‘Mum, bring me water,’ or ‘Mum, let me go and get you this.’ And I would tell them, ‘ No, I want to focus on your studies.’ Education is the foundation of everything in life.” The return to face-to-face education comes after nearly three years of disruption due to Israel’s genocidal war, which has seen almost all of Gaza’s population displaced and most buildings in the enclave destroyed. About 541,000 students returned to education in Gaza when the new school year began on September 19, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education, which comes after a decrease – but not an end – in violence following the October 2025 ceasefire.
In January, the ministry said 317,332 students were attending face-to-face educational spaces, schools and initiatives in Gaza. Another 120,000 were enrolled in virtual schools taught by teachers from the West Bank. However, despite the Gaza ceasefire, Israeli bombing has continued, with two students killed earlier this month.
Such dangers have severely affected the learning environment and education remains severely constrained by war and other realities on the ground. Nearly 98 percent of school buildings in Gaza had been damaged since October 2023, with more than 93 percent requiring major rehabilitation or full reconstruction, according to UNICEF. About 700,000 children aged four to 17 had missed formal face-to-face schooling for almost three consecutive school years, with around 420,000 having no face-to-face learning at all.
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