Jerusalem, 1 September, 2025 (TPS-IL) — Israeli schools reopened on Monday for more than 2.5 million students across the country, marking the start of a school year overshadowed by the continued captivity of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. For many families, it is a return to routine after mass evacuations last year triggered by Hamas and Hezbollah rocket attacks.
in northern Israel, most students have resumed classes, with the Education Ministry reporting that 95% of children evacuated from 32 northern communities are now attending school locally. Return rates vary widely, from 86% in Kiryat Shmona to just 34% in Metula. “Teachers and students are coming back, despite the challenges of the past year,” a ministry official said, noting that 97% of staff have returned to schools in affected areas.
In southern Israel, the Tekuma administration, which is in charge of rehabilitating communities near the Gaza border, reported that 23,522 children were returning to schools in communities rebuilt after last year’s Hamas attack, an 8% increase over 2024. Director Aviad Friedman noted that new births and the return of families have driven this growth, though some communities remain partially uninhabitable.
This year also saw the reopening of a kindergarten in Homesh, the first preschool to open in the former northern Samaria community evacuated during Israel’s 2005 disengagement plan. A law forbidding Israeli presence in these areas was repealed in 2023, and in May 2025, the government approved the establishment of 22 new communities in Judea and Samaria.
For those who lived through the 2005 evacuation, the moment carried deep emotional weight. Ayala Levy, the last kindergarten teacher of Homesh prior to the disengagement, said, “This is a very moving moment. I never dreamed that one day I would return to a Homesh kindergarten.”
Monday also marked the 700th day of war. U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee visited an elementary school near the Gaza border, where Principal Eyal Dvori urged him, “Do everything in your power to bring the hostages home and end the war.”
High school students demanding an immediate end to the war and the return of hostages held brief protests nationwide, including in Rehovot, Pardes Hanna-Karkur, and the Jezreel Valley, before fully resuming school routines.
Approximately 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 48 remaining hostages, around 20 are believed to be alive.
Across Israel, the new school year brought 180,600 first graders, 149,000 twelfth graders, 340,000 compulsory kindergarteners, and 193,000 pre-kindergarten students into classrooms. Haredi Orthodox schools welcomed 582,000 students, Arab schools 579,000, while gifted and high-achieving students added another 42,000. Education staff numbers total nearly 250,000, including 219,000 teachers, according to the Education Ministry.
Related Topics
