Reporting
Israel: after four months of war, Sderot, a town neighboring Gaza, reopens its first school
After the attacks on Israeli territory on October 7, nearly half a million Israelis were displaced, especially around the Gaza Strip in the south, but also along the northern border with Lebanon, where Hezbollah carries out strikes. Four months later, some began to return, notably to Sderot, in the south, attacked by Hamas commandos.
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General view of Sderot, a town in southern Israel very close to the separation from the Gaza Strip, here February 15, 2024. © Dylan Martinez / Reuters
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With our special correspondents in Sderot,
Guilhem Delteil
and
Nicolas Benita
Since Sunday February 18, the southern Israeli town of Sderot once again has an open school: the Neria school welcomes 70 children aged 6 to 9.
This return is a relief for Ilis, mother of three children, after four months of living in a hotel: “
The hotel is really not a place to raise three children, it is really not a place to live with children. It's not a house! We are better off at home!
»
For this start of the school year, the teaching team had to adapt the day program, indicates the temporary director of the city's schools: “
Every morning at 8:30 a.m., we have an assembly in each class. And the children can share their experience
.
How the night was or what they experienced during the war,
she explains.
And every day, there are preparation exercises in the event of an alert, because we want the children not to lose their vigilance and to be ready
. »
“
We hear the war
”
Marco Marek, his wife, their daughters and their 15 grandchildren returned to Sderot last month. But
the city remains largely empty
: “
People are still in hotels, in Tel Aviv, for example
,” testifies in French this sixty-year-old resident of Sderot for 55 years.
Some families have come, but most are still elsewhere, because they are afraid to return. Gaza is nearby,
we can hear the war
. »
However, the movement should accelerate: 80 new students should arrive at the Neria school this week. And all schools must reopen in two weeks. But in Sderot, “
normality has disappeared
,” believes Ilis.
Also read: Israel threatens to continue its offensive in Gaza during Ramadan
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