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There is something deeply moving about the sight of children in Gaza returning to school.
After nearly three years of war, displacement and unimaginable suffering, hundreds of thousands of children are once again sitting in classrooms – or, in many cases, tents and damaged buildings – listening to teachers, opening books and trying to learn.
Around 660,000 students have been deprived of regular classroom education, while about 98pc of Gaza’s schools have been damaged or destroyed.
For these children, returning to school is about far more than education. It is about reclaiming a small piece of childhood.
A child should worry about homework, examinations and playground friendships – not whether their home will still be standing tomorrow. They should be dreaming about becoming a doctor, teacher, engineer, artist or footballer, not learning how to live with fear and loss.
School gives children something war takes away: a sense of normality. It gives them a reason to wake up in the morning, a place to meet friends, a teacher who knows their name and a few precious hours in which they can simply be children.
That is why the reopening of schools should touch the conscience of everyone watching this tragedy unfold.
Whatever political arguments surround this war, there can surely be no justification for allowing another generation of children to have their lives and education destroyed.
Children did not start this war. They did not choose the violence. Yet they have paid an enormous price for it. The international community must do everything possible to ensure that this return to school becomes permanent.
Children need safe classrooms, teachers, books, food, healthcare and, above all, security.
And none of that can truly be guaranteed while war continues.
The greatest gift the world can give Gaza’s children is not another temporary pause between periods of violence. It is peace.
Let the classrooms stay open. Let the children keep their books. Let them laugh, play, learn and dream. They have already lost far too much. They deserve the chance to grow up. They deserve a future.
And they deserve to know what childhood feels like when it is not lived under the shadow of war.
Amy Henry
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