ISRAELI OCCUPIED GAZA, 19 July. - (ANA) - For nearly three years, Gaza's children have learned wherever they could inside overcrowded tents, makeshift shelters, or, for many, nowhere at all.

 

Classrooms were reduced to rubble, school buildings became shelters for displaced families, and the routines that once defined childhood disappeared under the weight of war.

 

But recently, in Gaza City, a school built entirely of wood is offering hundreds of children something they have long been denied: a place to learn and begin to reclaim a sense of normal life.

 

The first thing that caught 12-year-old Camelia Hadi's attention was the wooden bench beneath her. After nearly three years away from a proper classroom, she said simply sitting at a desk again felt unfamiliar.

 

"This is the first time I've sat in a real classroom since the beginning of the war […] For all that time we were studying in tents, or we weren't studying at all," Camelia told The New Arab.

 

Before Israel's genocidal war on Gaza began in October 2023, school had been an ordinary part of her daily routine.

 

She would wake up each morning, put on her school uniform and head to class. Those routines disappeared as schools across the enclave were destroyed or transformed into shelters for displaced families.

 

"I had forgotten what it felt like to sit at a desk or walk into a classroom," she said. "Today it feels like part of our lives has finally come back."

 

For fellow student Ghazal Abu Dalal, returning to school represents more than continuing her education.

 

"We used to study on the ground inside tents whenever there were lessons," she told TNA. "Now we have desks, a classroom and a roof that protects us from the sun. It feels like we've started school all over again."

 

For the children, wooden desks and walls are simple compared with the schools they once attended. Yet they also represent stability after years of disruption, repeated displacement and interrupted education.

 

Wood and determination

The Friends of Palestine School, established in Gaza City by the Turkish- and Syrian-funded Wefaq Humanitarian Foundation, is the first school in the Gaza Strip built entirely of wood.

 

The project was launched as an emergency response to the widespread destruction of Gaza's education infrastructure, creating a dedicated learning space while reconstruction of conventional schools remains out of reach, according to Mustafa al-Malahi, media director of the Wefaq Humanitarian Foundation.

 

"The school was built over two months on a 400-square-metre site despite severe logistical challenges," he told TNA.

 

The campus includes six classrooms, each accommodating around 35 students. Operating on a three-shift system, the school currently serves about 850 students, he said.

 

"The Palestinian Ministry of Education plans to expand the school's capacity to approximately 2,200 students and establish another school based on the same wooden model in Gaza City's Al-Nasr neighbourhood to accommodate more children who remain out of school," he added.

 

"The need is enormous as thousands of children are still waiting for the opportunity to return to learning," he explained.

 

Building the school was far from easy. The foundation struggled to secure suitable timber while repeated electricity outages delayed construction.

 

Even after the project was completed, obtaining basic classroom supplies remained difficult.

 

"A single whiteboard marker now costs around $US 10," Al-Malahi said. "Providing even simple educational materials has become another burden under the current economic conditions."

 

Although modest compared with traditional schools, the classrooms are equipped with wooden desks, whiteboards and basic educational materials, providing a more structured learning environment than the tent classrooms where many volunteer initiatives have operated during the war.

 

Hiba Al-Talla'a, a Gaza-based teacher, told TNA that the students' excitement was immediately apparent when classes began.

 

"The students entered the classrooms as though they were returning to a life they had lost. They were eager to choose their seats and carried their notebooks with happiness. That alone gives us hope that education can continue despite everything," she said.

 

She believes that having a permanent place to study, even one made of wood, helps restore a sense of routine that children have missed since Israel's genocidal war began.

 

"Children need stability as much as they need lessons," she added. "Coming to the same place every day helps them reconnect with their classmates, teachers and a daily rhythm that disappeared during the war."   - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/19 July 2026 - - -