‘It’s a bit stressful’: Schools in Sderot reopen after five months of war
Officials say 55%-60% return to studies in Gaza border town, where 200 soldiers help secure streets; but some residents still fear going home
SDEROT — Schools reopened in the Gaza-adjacent city of Sderot on Sunday, five months after Hamas gunmen roamed the streets during the terror group’s murderous attack on Israel, which prompted the mass evacuation of residents.
About 100 kindergartens, schools, and other educational sites opened their doors at 8 a.m., with officials expecting most students to show up.
An Education Ministry spokesperson told The Times of Israel that between 55% and 60% of kindergarten to 12th-grade students returned.
The number of students returning to school and kindergarten in the city “was a surprise, we thought it would be lower,” said Mayor Alon Davidi, speaking at an informal press conference outside an elementary school in the city alongside Education Minister Yoav Kisch and other officials.
Sderot was one of many locations overrun on October 7, with terrorists moving through the city on foot and in pickup trucks and slaughtering at least 50 civilians and 20 police officers.
The Hamas attack on southern Israel killed a total of 1,200 people, mostly civilians, amid horrific atrocities including widespread gang rape, mutilation, and torture.
The Hamas attack, during which terrorists also abducted 253 people from across the area and took them to Gaza as hostages, came under a barrage of thousands of rockets fired across Israel. Border areas have borne the brunt of rocket attacks from Gaza for the past two decades and rockets continued to rain down in the weeks and months that followed the October 7 onslaught, with areas close to the Palestinian enclave, including Sderot, particularly targeted.
Israel responded to the attack with a military campaign to topple the Hamas regime in the Palestinian enclave and free the hostages.
In the days after October 7, the IDF organized a mass evacuation of border communities, among them thousands of people from Sderot. Evacuees have been staying in hotels or rented accommodation, paid for by the government, while their children were absorbed into local education systems.
Last month the IDF authorized a return to many border area communities, including some 30,000 from Sderot.
Miri Asulin, a teacher whose three children have returned to school in the city, told the Kan public broadcaster Sunday that she had “mixed feelings, and if it were up to me I would not return.”
But, she said, as a teacher, she felt a sense of duty because “my students are waiting.”
Asulin said there are lingering fears in the city despite a strong security presence. “It’s a bit stressful,” she said. “On a personal level, I am afraid.”
George Metayev, a resident of Sderot who evacuated to Kiryat Gat with his wife and three children, told Kan they would not head back.
Metayev still works in Sderot and reported he has heard from people in the city that “there is a considerable percentage who have not returned and do not intend to return at least until July,” in line with a government schedule to end funding for evacuees’ stays in other locations.
The Maariv outlet reported that armed standby teams were set to patrol the city with the assistance of some 200 Israel Defense Forces soldiers. Together they would secure buses carrying students, education institutes, and other public buildings such as the community center, municipal library, and shopping malls.
Ahead of the reopening of schools, the municipality held preparation sessions last week for staff that included its psychological services, teacher soldiers from the army’s education corps, and exercises with security forces. A final rehearsal for opening education sites was held on Friday, the report said.
Mayor Davidi said in a statement last week that as soon as the IDF Home Front Command had instructed that education activities could go ahead, the municipality set about preparing the various sites, along with demanding increased security measures.
“We, as an authority, do everything to help the students, parents, and teaching staff in providing an optimal sense of security. Now it is the role of the IDF and the political leadership to give us security and prevent rocket fire toward the city. We will continue to demand absolute security for the residents of Sderot and the surrounding area,” Davidi said.
Kisch, the education minister, told the Makor Rishon newspaper last week in a statement that reopening the education system in Sderot was “particularly moving.”
“Thousands of students and educational staff returning to their natural place, to their home — this is the beginning of revival,” Kisch said. “For me, this is a kind of second opening of the school year. Congratulations to the students and parents.”
Elad Kalimi, head of education at the municipality, told Makor Rishon that since the war started schools had been converted into bases for soldiers. In preparation for the return of students, the sites were painted and refurbished, garden areas were tidied up, and any equipment that was lacking was found.
The rocket threat has largely, but not completely, abated as Israeli troops have rolled north to south through Gaza.
On Saturday, sirens sounded in Kibbutz Hatzerim, close to the southern city of Beersheba, following apparent long-range rocket fire from the Strip.
Sirens also sounded in the Gaza border community of Be’eri.
There were no reports of injuries or damage.
Tens of thousands of people from communities close to the Gaza border have been displaced since October 7. Dozens more communities in the north of the country were also evacuated after the massacre, as the Hezbollah terror group began launching near-daily attacks from across the Lebanon border.
In total, close to 200,000 people were evacuated in the immediate aftermath of October 7 and the subsequent war, with about 150,000 of them opting to stay in state-funded hotels.
