Extract from ABC News
Six-year-old Wurud Mughrabi shows off her new pink schoolbag, one of the few possessions not lost to war in Gaza. (ABC News)
Wurud Mughrabi opened her new pink mermaid bag proudly.
She had been saving it for her first day at school, pairing it with a matching denim outfit.
At six years old, she was one of more than half a million children who was able to attend school last week for in-person teaching for the first time in three years in Gaza.
"I am very happy," Wurud told the ABC, as her mother tied her hair up inside their tent.
"I will … go to my school and I will have friends."
For most of her childhood, Wurud has only known war, displacement and the search for food and shelter.
But last week she excitedly wheeled her bright pink backpack to school. It was empty. Pens, pencils and notepads are hard to come by in Gaza.
Since the Hamas attacks launched on October 7, 2023, more than 625,000 students in Gaza have gone without in-person classes and regular schooling.
Disruption to daily life has halted education for children aged four–17 after Israel's bombardment of the strip in response to the attacks.
Ibtisam Mughrabi prepares to take her daughter for her first day of school. (ABC News)
More than 64,000 children have reportedly been killed or injured in Gaza since October 7, according to UN children's agency UNICEF.
"Can you imagine … your daughter waking up at night and she is terrified, scared of the bombing? [She is] saying, 'Mommy, I am scared," Wurud's mother, Ibtisam Mughrabi, said of the last three years.
The young mother, who was wounded during Israel's war with Gaza, has been raising her daughter alone since her husband was killed in an air strike during the most recent ceasefire.
"I would have liked him to see her on this day," she said, adding her happiness was not complete without him.
Wurud and her mother have been sheltering in a United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) school in Nuseirat Refugee Camp since they fled their home in northern Gaza City during the war.
Now, the building is doubling up and returning to its previous function as an education centre.
Teaching in tents, desks damaged by war
Young children and parents make their way across a courtyard in the Nuseirat Refugee Camp. (ABC News)
In the playground of the school, large groups of children weaved and played between tarpaulin tents, a reminder that war was far from over. The same morning, Gazan officials said a 10-year-old was killed by Israeli army fire near the Nuseirat Refugee Camp.
"To be honest, the war did not end, at all, and I am concerned that, God forbid, something will happen during school," Ms Mughrabi said. "In spite of that, I am a big fan of education."
Parents lingered in the doorway, watching on proudly as their small children grinned at teachers sharing words and images in front of blackboards.
Young students are welcomed into the classroom as their parents watch from afar. (ABC News)
In some classrooms, children sat on the floor due to a lack of desks; others used furniture damaged in the fighting.
Nearly 98 per cent of school buildings in Gaza have been damaged since October, 7 2023 and more than 93 per cent require major rehabilitation or full reconstruction, according to UNICEF.
With the support of multiple aid organisations, children are learning in municipality schools, private spaces, online and in UNRWA schools — but none of the options are ideal.
"It's not what school should look like," Toby Fricker from UNICEF told the ABC.
"But it's about providing some form of structured classes … to be with friends, to be with teachers, to connect."
"This provides some hope amidst all the pain."
Learning comes second to survival
Adults help settle new students at their desks as the first in-person lesson in three years get underway. (ABC News)
Samaher Oweida is teaching out of a tent in Deir al-Balah; one of many grassroots educational tents operating in the enclave. UNRWA estimates more than a quarter of a million children are attending schools in similar facilities or heavily damaged classrooms.
She said the students did not know how to read or speak to the standard they should.
"[Their] biggest concern is finding water. They are not focused on education," Ms Oweida told the ABC team in Gaza, describing how the heat of the tents was a huge obstacle to getting the children to concentrate.
"We try as much as possible to keep them organised, but you feel that these children are older than their age because they are carrying responsibilities far greater than what a child should have to carry."
She said their fear of bombing remained one of the biggest hurdles.
"The children walk without knowing whether a car might be targeted. They walk between the tents, and you don't know who is inside a tent or which tent might be targeted," Ms Oweida said.
Sean Jones, the UNRWA director of affairs for Gaza, described the environment in the strip as "kinetic", despite there being a ceasefire.
"Almost every single day, some of our students, whether they're at home, in a tent, or in an UNRWA school … we have bullets that are ricocheting off of walls, injuring students, and then sometimes even being killed," he said.
Due to the ongoing blockade of certain goods into the Gaza Strip, schools have reported a lack of stationery, schoolbooks, desks and chairs. Restrictions on items entering the enclave mean there are limited resources, and those that are available are expensive.
UNICEF said the first time it was able to get any educational supplies into Gaza since the start of the war was February 2026. The organisation has distributed more than 290,000 school bags and 38,000 individual stationery kits to children, but it said demand currently outweighed the supply.
According to UNRWA, hundreds of backpacks did not make it into the enclave because their blue and white logo was printed on them. Mr Jones said these would have contained pens, pencils and other school supplies.
UNRWA has not been permitted to move supplies in or out of the strip since it was banned by law by Israel in 2024. Israel has defended the move, claiming that a number of the agency's staff were involved in Hamas's October 7 attacks.
"We are focused on how many kids can we reach given the restrictions that are placed on us, whether it's because of the facility that we're operating from is damaged, or that the kids are learning in a tent, or they have no electricity, or no toilets, no sanitation," he said.
Students still missing from the classroom
While many have returned to in-person teaching, UNICEF estimates around 200,000 children are still not being reached by education.
Going to school represents a slight return to normalcy for Ibtisam Mughrabi and Wurud, however, everyday life is far from what is was before the war broke out. (ABC News)
Bilal al-Gharabli is among them. He was born with a spinal condition, brain damage, partial paralysis and complete loss of movement in half of his body.
Before the war, Bilal had attended a small private school where the classrooms were air-conditioned to adapt to the shunt in his head and improve oxygen flow. The desks were specifically designed for wheelchairs, and the teachers adapted to teaching children like Bilal.
"After the war, as you can see, there is no education and no suitable centre," his mother, Nour, said.
"Even if a suitable centre opened for them, I would want him to go, but I am still afraid of the broken roads. I am afraid of unexploded objects hitting him. I am afraid someone could knock him over in his wheelchair, kidnap him, or something else could happen."
This year, he could not go back to school, a fact that broke his mother's heart. She did everything she could to make it better. She says he has the right to be like other children.
"I didn't want him to miss out on it … I bought him stationery and a bag … I bought him new clothes and made it feel like he was starting the school year, just like the other children," she says, listing the items with her hands.
"I didn't want to deprive him of the joy at all."
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