As the new school year opened Monday against the backdrop of the ongoing war, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Education Minister Yoav Kisch visited a school in Nof Hagalil in the north of the country. President Isaac Herzog also toured schools in northern Israel, stopping at Rambam and Danziger schools in Kiryat Shmona before meeting children from Majdal Shams and other northern communities.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee visited an elementary school in the Eshkol Regional Council near Gaza, where explosions from the strip could be heard in the background. Addressing him in the opening ceremony, Principal Eyal Dvori said: “Yaffa Rudaeff,, an art teacher here, is still waiting for her partner, Lior, whose body remains in Hamas captivity in Gaza. Do everything in your power to bring the hostages home and end the war.”
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U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee visited an elementary school in the Eshkol Regional Council
(Photo: Herzl Yosef)
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First graders on their first day of school in Kiryat Bialik
(Photo: Spokesperson, Kiryat Bialik municipality)
Meanwhile, high school students launched protests calling for the release of the hostages. Demonstrations were held in Rehovot, Pardes Hanna-Karkur, Ein HaEmek and at Ogen Junction in the Jezreel Valley, with a press statement planned at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv.
“We cannot accept a reality of returning to routine while there are 48 hostages,” student organizers said. “We cannot open the school year this morning as if everything is normal. This reality is unbearable.”
Dozens of protesters gathered at Weizmann Institute Junction in Rehovot chanting for the hostages’ release. Some students camped overnight at Hostages Square in a “white night” vigil and said they would not attend classes Monday.
High school students stand at intersecitons to pretest for the release of hostages
(Video: Yair Sagi)
In Haifa district schools, the first week will focus on “strengthening social bonds, personal resilience and classroom unity,” education officials said. They added that the education system will mark 700 days since the start of the war this week with activities calling for the hostages’ release, supporting soldiers and the wounded, honoring bereaved families, and providing care for children of reservists and security forces.
In addition, the Education Ministry said it will launch a joint initiative with Israel’s National Student and Youth Council. As part of it, 48 minutes of homeroom time during the first week of classes will be dedicated to the 48 remaining hostages held by Hamas.
This year also saw the reopening of a kindergarten in Homesh, the first preschool to open in Samaria since the 2005 disengagement. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Education Minister Kisch welcomed the move.
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After 20 years, a new kindergarten opens in the northern Wet Bank settlement of Homesh
(Photo: Samaria Regional Council)
Altogether, 2,587,000 students began the school year after summer vacation. Of those, 180,600 entered first grade, 149,000 started their final year of high school, 340,000 began compulsory kindergarten, and 193,000 entered pre-kindergarten. The school year also opened for 582,000 students in ultra-Orthodox schools and 579,000 in Arab schools. In addition, 24,000 gifted students and 18,000 outstanding students returned to class.
Across the country, the academic year began in 5,807 schools and 21,600 kindergartens. Some 248,000 education staff resumed work, including 219,000 teachers, 5,800 principals and 24,000 kindergarten teachers.
In northern Israel, schools also opened as usual after security threats were lifted. According to the Education Ministry, about 90% of evacuated students and 97% of staff have returned to schools in the affected northern communities. However, three elementary schools — in Metula, Kiryat Shmona and Betzet — will remain closed, along with more than 30 kindergartens.