00:00Children in Gaza are returning to school as the new academic year begins,
00:05heading back to classrooms that remain heavily damaged and lack basic equipment after years of war.
00:11For many children, the war has meant repeated displacement.
00:14They have fled airstrikes and shelling and at times spent their days searching for water and food
00:20instead of studying or spending time with friends.
00:23For some families, the return to school has restored a sense of routine that had been missing throughout the war.
00:32I came to find a normal school environment as much as was possible
00:35with a morning assembly and a warm welcome from the administration.
00:39My child is overjoyed. He had been waiting since dawn to go to school,
00:43just as he had seen his siblings do.
00:47I also have a daughter in the fourth grade.
00:50She attended classes for the first month, having spent the three years of the war,
00:54wishing she could at least visit a school, not to study.
01:00At a school in Nusirat, run by a UN agency for Palestinian refugees,
01:05some classrooms have no desks.
01:07Children sit on blankets on the floor, while others use all damaged desks that survive the war.
01:13Some school buildings are also still damaged, while others continue to shelter displaced families.
01:20Three years ago, the UNRWA had 182 fully-occupied schools.
01:26However, we have unfortunately lost more than 95% of them,
01:29and those that remain are occupied by displaced people.
01:33The UN says more than 280,000 children are now attending schools and educational tents.
01:39About 700,000 children, ages 4 to 17 in Gaza,
01:44had missed formal in-person schooling for almost three years as of April, according to UNICEF.
01:49And the UN www.C πάpe University of Music,
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