Children return to schools in north as Hezbollah ceasefire holds
Education minister fetes resumption of class for 150,000 students; father in village where schools remain closed says institutions hosting evacuees not adequately supported
Tens of thousands of children and teens returned on Sunday to schools and kindergartens in northern communities bombarded by Hezbollah over the past year after the IDF Home Front Command eased restrictions the night before.
Under the changes, schools in the northern frontier communities and the north Golan Heights are able to operate if adequate shelter can be reached in time, allowing 150,000 students to return to schools, according to Education Ministry figures.
In other areas of northern Israel, all restrictions on gatherings and schools have been lifted as the ceasefire with Hezbollah broadly holds.
According to the Education Ministry, some 16,000 northern students remain displaced and are continuing their classes at alternative institutions.
Newly reopened schools in the north welcomed students with balloons and signs like they do at the beginning of the academic year.
At Tel Hai Elementary School in Haifa, where 400 students returned on Sunday, students and teachers sang the national anthem in the courtyard at the end of celebrations, the Ynet news site reported.
Shani Vigdorchik, 11, told the site that she was very excited to return to class.
“During the war I was afraid, but after it, I calmed down. I understood that everyone was in this situation, my parents were with me, and that strengthened me. I believe that it’s over and we will continue the sixth grade as normal,” she said.
Shamrit Ben Hemo, principal of the Rav Maimon School in Shlomi, hailed the opening of the institution in full, “without capsules, without distance learning, without half-half.”
Education Minister Yoav Kisch celebrated the milestone, writing on X that it was “a symbol of the resilience and faith in the rightness of our path,” and vowed to continue to work until all students were back in school.
For those whose children have not returned, the celebrations were premature.
Omri Lerner, who lives with his three children in the northern community of Kahal where schools have not reopened, told Israel Hayom that Kisch was simply doing “public relations” for himself.
Lerner said that communities in regional councils that were hosting evacuated communities were not receiving the services that they needed to support extra students.
“The education minister is happy that schools are opening, but for us, this is the second year where students are not learning as they should, and this didn’t change today,” he said.
Last week, a ceasefire went into effect seeking to end 14 months of Hezbollah-initiated fighting. The IDF has 60 days to withdraw under the deal while the Lebanese army is to gradually take responsibility for southern Lebanon, and an American-led committee will be established to adjudicate complaints regarding potential ceasefire violations, the military said.
Hezbollah forces will leave southern Lebanon, and its military infrastructure will be dismantled. The US has also reportedly provided a side letter specifying Israel’s rights to respond to any violations of the ceasefire.
Hezbollah began firing into Israel one day after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught in southern Israel, in support of its fellow Iran-backed terror group, drawing Israeli reprisals and leading to the displacement of some 60,000 residents of northern Israel.
Fighting intensified in late September, with Israel killing much of Hezbollah’s leadership and launching a limited ground incursion on October 1 that has seen soldiers search villages for rockets and other arms held by the terror group, and tackle its terror tunnels and other infrastructure.
