Photos: Gaza’s children return to class in tents and ruins

In PicturesSaveSharefacebookxwhatsapp-strokecopylinkPalestinian students attend their first day of the new school year inside a tent classroom at a school in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. [Ramadan Abed/Reuters]By Al Jazeera, AP and ReutersPublished On 21 Sep 202621 Sep 2026Hundreds of thousands of children returned to in-person classes in Gaza on Saturday for the first time in nearly three years, filing into damaged school buildings, makeshift classrooms and tents amid a severe shortage of basic supplies.The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says 98 percent of schools in the Gaza Strip were destroyed or damaged during Israel’s genocidal war on the enclave, while local education officials estimate about 660,000 students have been deprived of regular, in-person learning.The reopening is a fragile milestone in a territory where about 22,000 students and more than 770 education workers, including 532 teachers, have been killed, according to Ibrahim Ramadan, director of education for eastern Khan Younis.“The last time I have been to school was three years ago,” said student Moayed Abu Mustafa in Khan Younis. “Now, we are starting the school year; it is year of joy, happiness and success. Despite all of this, we will learn, we will learn even in a tent.”Moayed has no proper shoes, notebook or pen, and will sit on the floor in a sweltering tent.Across Gaza, the Ministry of Education, backed by aid agencies, has set up dozens of temporary schools from tarpaulins, sheet metal and wood. Some classrooms consist of a few mattresses and a blackboard; others still shelter displaced families.“We studied on phones, and we haven’t seen our teachers. Now, we are back pursuing our dream … from one tent to another,” said 15-year-old Samar Abu Salmi, who lives in a tent with her family and can no longer afford school supplies that were cheap before the war.Stationery trader Khaled Aliyan said Israeli import restrictions have driven prices up fivefold. “All stationery items are expensive,” he said.Israeli forces still control more than 60 percent of Gaza despite an October 2025 “ceasefire” that halted large-scale fighting but left the underlying conflict unresolved.Displaced Palestinian student Samar Abu Salmi, 15, reads a list of names displayed in a school in Khan Younis. [Ramadan Abed/Reuters]Tents for displaced Palestinians cover the yard of a school-turned-shelter in Khan Younis. [Ramadan Abed/Reuters]Palestinian children sit in their classroom on the first day of the new academic year at a United Nations-run school in Nuseirat, the central Gaza Strip. [Jehad Alshrafi/AP Photo]A destroyed UN-run school in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, on the first day of the new academic year. [Jehad Alshrafi/AP Photo]Palestinian students attend their first day of the new school year at a school run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip. [Mahmoud Issa/Reuters]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. [Ramadan Abed/Reuters]Clothes hang out to dry as displaced Palestinians live in a school-turned-shelter in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. [Ramadan Abed/Reuters]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. This comes after a decrease in - but not an end to - violence following an October 2025 "ceasefire". [Mahmoud Issa/Reuters]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. [Ramadan Abed/Reuters]A Palestinian student looks into his classroom while he attends the first day of the new academic year at a UN-run school in Nuseirat, in the central Gaza Strip. [Jehad Alshrafi/AP Photo]Nearly 98 percent of school buildings in Gaza have been damaged since October 2023, with more than 93 percent requiring major rehabilitation or full reconstruction, according to UNICEF. [Jehad Alshrafi/AP Photo]