By Dan Williams and Emily Rose
RAMAT HASHARON, Israel (Reuters) – In dozens of northern Israeli towns and villages, evacuated under fire from the Lebanese Hezbollah group in parallel with the Gaza war, officials hope the daily rocket warning sirens will ring school bells when the academic year begins in September. 1.
The ticking clock has been the subject of disagreements in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, testing its cohesion and credibility.
Of the 60,000 civilians displaced from northern Israel at the start of the war, 14,600 were children, who were scattered in kindergartens and temporary schools, or places repurposed as day care or emergency classrooms, throughout the interior of the country.
Education Minister Yoav Kisch said Israel is spending $38 million to build kindergartens and new schools not far from rockets in the north, which could take children if their original schools are not safe and ready by September 1.
If new buildings seem unnecessary, other uses can be found.
“I hope that this investment will not be spent on children living at the border,” he told Reuters in an interview.
At least a month to prepare the orphaned northern schools, some of which are in ruined and dilapidated communities, for next year’s intake of students.
“So if we’re going to see a solution on August 1, we know we can start on September 1,” he said. If that fails, “we will shift all our focus to other options”.
THE BOUNDARIES WE PASSED
Dislocated and hard to do homework in the cramped accommodation provided to families by the state, many students from the north slipping, teachers said. High school drop-out rates can reach 5%, according to Kisch — about twice the national average.
Some of their parents want to resettle permanently, giving up on returning to their hometown.
“I’m not sure that all the residents of Kiryat Shmona will return to Kiryat Shmona,” said Ofer Zafrani, principal of Danziger High School on the city’s borders, who moved into a row of converted offices above a multiplex cinema outside Tel Aviv.
“We know this is the price we have to pay,” he told Reuters as students rioted around him. “But I think there’s a limit we’ve crossed. It’s too much.”
In the south, even in communities near the Gaza Strip, some Israeli families have been able to return to their homes as armed forces operate a fence to prevent rocket fire. Zafrani said residents in the north needed an equal opportunity to return home.
“We must return – and not only return, but there must be a solution to the situation in the north, as in the south, so that we will feel safe,” said Zafrani.
In Gaza, Israel’s eight-month campaign to eliminate Hamas has devastated the region’s education system.
WITH THE FRONT, CONTINUED
The exchange of fire in the northern front of Israel, in parallel with the war in Gaza, has so far been without escalating into a cross-border war all out in Lebanon, like the last Israeli war against Hezbollah 18 years ago.
But many people died on both sides. On the Lebanese side, 90,000 civilians have also been evacuated, about a third of them children, most of whom are now enrolled in new schools, according to UN figures.
Israel has threatened a possible future escalation to an invasion of Lebanon – while also opening the door to a US- or French ceasefire that would keep Iranian-backed fighters away from the border.
Touring the border on May 23, Netanyahu said Israel had a “detailed, important, even impressive plan” to drive Hezbollah back, “but we are not letting the enemy in on the plan”.
The refusal to give details or a date is a slide from Netanyahu’s political rival to his embattled cabinet partner, Benny Gantz, who has threatened to attack the emergency coalition this week over what he says is a lack of a clear strategy.
Gantz also visited the north at the same time as Netanyahu, in a separate armored cavalcade.
“I am asking the government to start preparations, now, so that we can return home safely on September 1, by force or agreement,” Gantz said. “We must not allow another year to be lost in the north.”
The two fronts are intertwined, as Hezbollah says it will continue to attack as long as Israel’s war against Palestinian Hamas fighters continues. Both militant groups are allies of Iran.
Promoting the Gaza ceasefire, US President Joe Biden has benefited from the quiet in southern Lebanon.
But some Israeli officials fear that they will be repressed: if the northerners return, Hamas may see an opportunity to attack again, calculating that Israel does not want to retaliate so that Hezbollah’s attacks continue and require a new evacuation.
Meanwhile, Israeli education officials say they are also preparing for a more troubling scenario: full-scale war with Hezbollah. That would likely put all of Israel under threat from the group’s rockets. Then, Kisch said, most of the country’s schools will be closed as civilians evacuate.
“If it’s going to be a long process, there will be homeschooling as well,” said Kisch, who served as Israel’s deputy health minister during the COVID-19 lockdown and distance learning procedures.
“But I hope we can, with a strong and effective fight, to eliminate this threat as soon as possible.”
