Resilience amid war: Rafah teachers deliver lessons in tents despite ongoing Israeli aggressions

By Anadolu staff

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - Inside a small tent in one of the displacement camps in Rafah city, teacher Jameela Halawa delivers lessons to children, despite the challenging circumstances caused by the ongoing Israeli war on the Gaza Strip for over six months.

Halawa, 41, along with her fellow teachers, persists in teaching the children despite the lack of resources and continuing the education in the enclave, despite the children's dropping out of classrooms due to the war.

- Significant interaction

The initiative launched by Halawa and her fellow teachers has received significant response and interaction from displaced students and families who rely on this small tent for their children's education.

Inside the tent, the Palestinian school's voice echoes as it teaches children Arabic letters, while students eagerly engage in pronouncing them and producing Arabic words.

"The initiative came after seeing my grandchildren holding pens and notebooks, eager for education they had to give up due to the war on the Gaza Strip," Halawa told Anadolu.

"I liked the idea, and some teachers also liked it, so we started giving lessons to children in the camp inside a tent, using some notebooks, pens, and chalk," she added.

She continued: "The idea was welcomed by the camp residents, students, and local institutions, and some initial support was provided to establish the school tent simply to hold lessons for children from the first and second grades."

Halawa explained the difficulties she faces in the tent, such as the lack of educational supplies like books and stationery, and the extreme heat inside.

- Lack of resources

Meanwhile, another teacher, Reham Abu Matar, said: "We want the generation to be educated, not illiterate, so we give them lessons in Arabic, mathematics, Islamic education, and English."

The Palestinian teacher hopes for support for the project of educating students in the Gaza Strip who suffer from the war's woes.

"We dropped off the school because of the war, and today we returned to it in one of the tents that provide lessons," 16-year-old student Layan Al-Majbur told Anadolu.

She added: "The war claimed the lives of many children and made us forget education, and the tent today brings back what we have forgotten."

The child wishes for the nightmare of war to end and to return to the school desk again.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7, 2023 cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas in which nearly 1,200 people were killed.

More than 33,700 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have since been killed in Gaza, and nearly 76,400 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul