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Cease-Fire Spurs Race To Reopen Gaza Schools as Capacity Lags

Aid groups blame import limits for throttling the supplies needed to restart classes.

Students attend a morning assembly at a school set up on the beach in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinian students attend class inside a tent set up on the beach in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinian students attend class inside a tent set up on the beach in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinian high school students return to class weeks after a ceasefire was announced between Israel and Hamas, at the Kamilia School in the Old City of Gaza City, Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehand Alshrafi)

Overview

  • More than 630,000 children missed two years of schooling, and UNICEF says only about 100,000 have returned.
  • UNRWA is delivering temporary lessons to roughly 40,000 students while about 75,000 displaced people still shelter in its schools.
  • Many school buildings are damaged or destroyed, pushing classes into tents and prefabs with limited space and materials.
  • UNICEF says Israel has blocked items it labels non-critical, including basic school supplies, and COGAT offered no immediate comment.
  • U.N. experts say reconstruction has not begun and could take years at a cost of about $70 billion, with past reports of Hamas using some schools for military purposes shaping security debates.