Palestinian students are pictured in a classroom on the first day of the new school year in Gaza City, on Aug. 26, 2023. Photo: Xinhua

Palestinian children across the Gaza Strip were back to school on Saturday, with many making the adjustment to a new school year and anticipating greeting old and new friends.

More than 1.3 million Palestinian children are returning to school in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and in Gaza over the last two weeks of August, said Lynn Hastings, UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in the occupied Palestinian territory, in a statement on Aug 21.

Amid prolonged Israeli blockades and recurrent hostilities against the Palestinian enclave, schools provide Gazan students with a place to feel safe and secure and develop the skills and aptitudes for their future, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.

Palestinian students are pictured in a classroom on the first day of the new school year in Gaza City, on Aug. 26, 2023. Photo: Xinhua

 

Palestinian students are pictured in a classroom on the first day of the new school year in Gaza City, on Aug. 26, 2023. Photo: Xinhua

 

Palestinian students are pictured on the first day of the new school year in Gaza City, on Aug. 26, 2023. Photo: Xinhua