GAZA, Jan. 22 – After the Israeli attacks forced many children in the Gaza Strip to flee their homes and schools, Intisar al-Arabid, a Gaza-based Palestinian teacher, launched her own initiative to teach displaced students in her shelter in the southern city of Rafah.
“Being unable to go to school, the students are under stress as they have to go through the dire situation caused by the ongoing military operation in Gaza,” said the 45-year-old math teacher.
“Due to the lack of a sense of security, some children have started to have negative behaviors such as violence, especially those living in refugee camps,” she noted.
To help the children in Gaza, al-Arabid decided to take the matters into her own hands and started to offer free lessons to school-age children at the al-Quds primary school in Rafah, which has been turned into a shelter for displaced people.
The curriculum courses that al-Arabid teaches in the school include math, science and Arabic. However, she has found it challenging to carry on the teaching amid the lack of pens, papers, notebooks, and education books.
She then made the decision to concentrate more on teaching students to memorize, saying it would help them become more intelligent and focused.
Israel has been launching a large-scale offensive in Gaza to retaliate against a surprise attack by the Palestinian Hamas group on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, when about 1,200 people were killed, according to the Israeli tallies.
The Israeli attacks have killed 24,927 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as of Saturday, according to the Gaza-based Health Ministry. Furthermore, many of Gaza’s civilian structures, hospitals, colleges, and schools have all been destroyed by the attacks.
“The Israeli government wants to destroy all aspects of life in Gaza and make it unstable. Our children lost all of their human rights in Gaza, including their right to life, education, and play,” said Samah al-Masri, a displaced Gazan woman.
The 42-year-old mother of three said that al-Arabid’s initiative helped her eight-year-old son to resume his classes, restore his passion for life, and get rid of his fears that he would be killed by the Israeli army.
Mohammed Abu Reziq, a displaced Gazan teenager who lost his school in an Israeli attack on the Gaza City, is one of the dozens of students taking al-Arabid’s lessons.
“Currently, I have known new classmates and I feel that I have returned to my former school, which gives me hope that I will return to my normal life soon after the Israeli army ends its war against Gaza,” said the 12-year-old.
Samir Awadallah, a Gaza-based Arabic teacher, said al-Arabid’s initiative had given local residents, “who are struggling against the death in Gaza,” some positive energy.
He said that al-Arabid’s initiative had encouraged him to teach students in a refugee camp located in the western part of Rafah city.
“We are a people who love life and are trying to live in peace far away from the war,” he said, adding “the life will continue, and the war will end someday.”
