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South Lebanon children return to school destroyed by Israel strike
Confirmed
In Short: More than a million people were displaced during the conflict, but over 800,000 have returned since June when violence decreased following a US-Iran memorandum and a Lebanon-Israel framework agreement.
Eight-year-old Yara Ajami started the academic year in a doorless, windowless classroom after her school in Burj Qalaway, South Lebanon, was destroyed by an Israeli strike in May.
The school, which once housed around 600 students, now has only 250 registered due to displacement and insecurity following the March war between Hezbollah and Israel.
Government-funded prefabricated units are being installed on the school premises where rubble has not yet been cleared. Some students are sharing space with displaced people in converted shelters.
In some schools, displaced people and students share the space, with floors reserved for each group.
The strikes and displacement orders have intensified recently, with at least 19 people killed and 58 wounded in Israeli attacks in Lebanon, according to Lebanese health authorities.
The school's destruction and the ongoing conflict highlight the challenges faced by children in returning to a normal education.
Background
Southern Lebanon is the area of Lebanon comprising the South Governorate and the Nabatiye Governorate. The two entities were divided from the same province in the early 1990s.
What's confirmed
- South Lebanon Children Return to School Destroyed by Israel Strike In southern Lebanon, eight-year-old Yara Ajami started the academic year this week in a doorless, windowless classroom after her school was destroyed by an Israeli strike.
- "We are happy to be back (to school), but we were happier before. We used to draw, play, but now there are no desks or chairs," the young girl with braided hair said as she climbed a bare concrete staircase.
- "There is sadness in their eyes, each one of them has a story," school principal May Mehdi told AFP from the courtyard.
- "But I am happy they are here," she said, showing on her phone what the school, her pride, once looked like.
- Around 250 students are registered in the 24-classroom school, which used to have at least 600 school-goers before the start of the latest war in March, when Hezbollah attacked Israel in support of Tehran, following US-Israeli attacks on Iran.
- Israel responded with major airstrikes and a ground invasion that killed more than 4,300 people, including 261 children according to Lebanese authorities.
- Many of Burj Qalaway's children were unable to start the school year, being still displaced or fearing to return to the town, less than a kilometre (mile) away from Israeli troops occupying a swathe of the south.
- Earlier this month, UNICEF said that nearly 100,000 students in Lebanon were unable to return to their schools for the academic year due to "damage, destruction, insecurity, or displacement".
- Government-funded prefabricated units are being installed on the school premises where rubble has not yet been cleared.
- "My home was destroyed and so was my school... (but) the students give us the strength and will to continue," the 42-year-old told AFP.
- Well known in the area for its excellence, Ajami's elementary school in Burj Qalaway was struck by Israel in May.
- Rather than go to their old school building, Ajami and the other students returning to classes after the summer break on Monday were diverted to a nearby structure still under construction that was being built to house preschoolers.
What's still developing
- The report, which was harshly criticized by Israel, served as a "reminder to companies that they have human rights responsibilities", UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.
- Mehdi does not have an office in the current building, which does not even have a teacher’s lounge.
- Lebanon’s health ministry said on Thursday that an Israeli air strike south of Beirut killed a woman and two children, after Israel’s army said it “precisely struck” the city without identifying the target.
- Earlier in the day, state-run National News Agency reported that among the casualties in southern Lebanon, there were six people belonging to the same family who killed in an Israeli drone strike as they were trying to flee at dawn along the Adloun Highway, a key route linking Sidon and Tyre.
- Israel has also issued sweeping displacement orders covering large parts of the south, including Tyre and surrounding areas.
- Residents were told to evacuate immediately and move north of the Zahrani River, roughly 40km (25 miles) from the Lebanon-Israel border.