NAGHAM KARAJA

Palestine — In the northern Gaza Strip, the school story does not begin with the morning bell or children lining up at the gate of a cement school, but under a cloth roof, between a few seats and blackboards that are not enough for thousands of students. Here, "School Without Borders" tries to give children a space to learn, after most of the schools they knew before the war were turned into destroyed buildings or shelters for displaced people.

Nawal Abu Nadi, a teacher at "School Without Borders" and an educational supervisor, says the school was established in May 2024 and was, at its beginning, the first teaching tent in the northern Gaza Strip. It began receiving about 500 male and female students, before the number rose to nearly a thousand.

With the return of numbers of displaced people to the northern Strip, the school moved from Al‑Jalaa Street to the Katiba grounds west of Gaza City, and its scope expanded until its students reached about three thousand, becoming, according to Abu Nadi, the largest field school in the northern Strip.

She explains: "The numbers are increasing daily due to the urgent need to resume the educational process amid the absence of safe schools. Many school buildings have been turned into shelters for displaced people, while children need a place where they can regain something of their normal lives."

She notes that establishing the school was not an easy task, as the experiment began with very limited capabilities. She says: "We faced great challenges from the beginning—from providing parachutes, sheds, and flooring to securing the simplest requirements of an educational environment. Resources were few, but we managed to establish the first school on Al‑Jalaa Street."

The high heat in the summer months was not the only challenge; the school had to rely on limited donations to provide fans and batteries, while the shortage of educational tools has persisted since the first days. "We currently face a very acute shortage of school seats and educational blackboards," she says, appealing to relevant institutions to "support us in providing these needs, because the numbers of children wanting to learn exceed available capabilities."

 

Multiple Burdens Facing Families

The crisis does not stop at the school's physical structure. Families trying to send their children to classrooms face another burden: the rising prices of stationery, clothing, and educational supplies, at a time when the war has exhausted most families' sources of income.

Nawal Abu Nadi says: "The prices of stationery and school supplies have become high, and many families cannot afford to buy them for their children. So the child comes to school without the tools they need, which increases the burden on the school and teachers and makes providing stationery an essential part of the educational process, not a secondary matter."

This testimony aligns with what UNICEF documented in its report issued in May 2026, stating that about 700,000 children in Gaza, aged four to seventeen, were deprived of formal in‑person education for nearly three consecutive academic years, and that about 420,000 children—three out of every five children—had no access to in‑person education. It also noted that about 98 percent of school buildings were damaged, with more than 93 percent of them needing major rehabilitation or complete reconstruction.

The danger of the road to learning places further increases the difficulty of the task; UNICEF warned that about 60 million tons of rubble block roads and conceal explosive remnants, making children's access to learning places unsafe in many areas.

At "School Without Borders," workers try to deal with another aspect of the war's effects no less dangerous than the shortage of seats and books: the psychological trauma children carry with them into the teaching tents.

 

Continuing Education... A Message of Defiance

She explains that "coming to school is not easy amid shelling, the sounds of aircraft, and the dangers surrounding them, but it represents a message of defiance and insistence on continuing. Many children have lost their fathers, mothers, or family members, and some have witnessed scenes beyond a child's capacity to endure."

The presence of psychologists daily to follow up on these cases is essential. The school does not only give the child knowledge; it temporarily takes them out of the atmosphere of fear and pressure and provides them with a space for psychological release and interaction with their peers, and this makes a big difference in their ability to cope with trauma.

From a legal perspective, depriving children of education or endangering their access to it violates a fundamental right guaranteed by Article 28 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which obliges states to make education available to children on the basis of equal opportunity. International humanitarian law also imposes special protection for children and ensures the continuation of their education in conflict conditions, making the collapse of the educational environment and the absence of safe places for learning a violation of their rights and serious effects on their future.

Despite limited resources, "School Without Borders" tries to continue through limited partnerships. Nawal Abu Nadi explains that the project began as a personal initiative, before the circle of support expanded to include several institutions, reaching the current partnership with the "Al‑Nayzak" Foundation, one of UNICEF's partners.

She says: "Current support covers grades four to nine, through incentives for some female teachers and providing part of the stationery, two educational tents, and some sheds. But the kindergarten to third grade stage still lacks a supporting party, and its teachers continue to work voluntarily every day."

Nawal Abu Nadi does not hide her fear that the continued absence of support will widen the educational gap, especially for younger children who need basic education and psychological care at the same time.

In a sector whose educational structure has been exhausted by the Israeli war, the school tent appears to be a modest attempt to fill a massive void. UNICEF confirmed that about 700,000 children in Gaza have lost regular access to in‑person education, while most school buildings need rehabilitation or reconstruction.

As a new school year begins, thousands of children in Gaza face a harsh reality preventing their normal return to education; many families are unable to provide stationery and school supplies amid rising prices and deteriorating living conditions. Meanwhile, other children live in displacement sites lacking the basics of life, in addition to the absence of a safe and prepared learning environment. Between tents and shelters, these children try to reclaim their right to education amid the effects of war, loss, and displacement.