Tens of thousands of children wearing uniforms and carrying satchels flocked back to schools throughout the Gaza Strip today, days after Israel ended its military operation against the territory’s rulers, the militant group Hamas.
Children returning to school presents another step back to normality for Gaza's 1.4 million residents, seven days after a cease-fire was called, ending Israel's three-week air and ground assault in the tiny coastal territory, aimed at stopping Hamas rocket fire on southern Israel.
The onslaught killed 1,285 Palestinians, including some 280 children, according to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. Thirteen Israelis, including three civilians, were also killed during the fighting, according to the government.
Along with Gaza's public schools, which have been run by Hamas since it took over the territory in 2007, the scores of schools run by the United Nations re-opened their doors to the 200,000 children who attend them.
"Of course, the first thing we have to do is a roll call to see who has, and who has not, survived the conflict," said UN spokesman Chris Gunness.
More than 30 UN schools were damaged in the fighting. The schools were also used as makeshift refuges by thousands of Gazans fleeing clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants in border areas, and by others whose homes were destroyed in the fighting.
In the UN's Fakhoura Elementary school in the northern Gaza Strip town of Jebalia, three chairs in an eighth-grade class were adorned with the names of students who were killed during the offensive.
During the fighting, Palestinian militants fired rockets from next to the school, where hundreds of Gazans had huddled, according to witnesses. Israeli forces responded by lobbing back mortars that hit near the school and killed around 40 people, mostly civilians.
AP