Students in Gaza are returning to a vastly different reality as the school at Holy Family Parish reopens for the first time since the start of Israel’s military campaign. Source: OSV News.
For Auxiliary Bishop William Shomali, patriarchal vicar for Jerusalem and Palestine, the resumption of classes at the parish compound offers a small but significant step toward normalcy for dozens of children living amid ongoing conflict and destruction.
“Reopening the school is itself a form of care,” Bishop Shomali said. “The situation in Gaza remains far from normal – the conflict is ongoing, and we would not suggest otherwise. But precisely within that reality, giving children a safe place with familiar routines and trusted teachers offers them something dependable to hold onto for a few hours each day.”
This month, the school at the only Catholic parish in Gaza will welcome approximately 1000 students at the start of the school year, with 180 enrolled in the patriarchate’s kindergarten and the remaining 820 in the primary school, Bishop Shomali noted.
His focus on the importance of reopening echoed a pastoral letter published on August 26 by Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, to mark the start of the academic year.
In the letter, Cardinal Pizzaballa noted that “in some parts of the Holy Land, returning to school can no longer be taken for granted”.
“There are children whose classrooms no longer stand and communities in which the joy of a new school year is overshadowed by death, displacement and destruction,” the cardinal wrote.
“Our Christian schools are far more than educational institutions. They are a cornerstone of the Christian presence in the Holy Land. They also welcome many students and families from different religious traditions and educate generations in coexistence, mutual respect and acceptance of the other.”
According to an August 24 report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 73,000 people, including 21,283 children, have died in Gaza.
The report added that about 1.98 million people – about 94 per cent of the population – are displaced, while an estimated 637,475 school-age children lack sustained access to formal education.
FULL STORY
Gaza school reopening is a reminder that ‘hope is stronger than fear,’ bishop says (By Junno Arocho Esteves, OSV News)
