Saturday, January 24, 2009

More than 200,000 children in Gaza on Saturday, returned to school after the Israeli military operation, having lost home in many cases, family and sense of security.

UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) opened the 221 schools that educate the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and have served as a refuge for thousands of people during the 22 days of the Israeli offensive.


Al Zukur at school in the town of Beit Lahiya, children playing with their huge backpacks noisily in the courtyard, while the upper floors of the building of classrooms, a week before it was hit by an Israeli missile, still burned .

After the bombing the school had been declared a fire that caused panic among the nearly 1,600 people were sheltering in it.


Two children died, five and seven years, and at least 12 people were injured, including the mother of the little ones, to which he had to amputate a leg, according to the UN.

It is one of three schools with refugees who were attacked by the Israeli army during the war. On January 6 killed 40 people in the bombing of another college of the UN.


The Israeli army said it was responding to an attack that came from these buildings or nearby, but the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, called the bombings "shameful" and called for the request before the legal responsibilities .

Al Zukur, according to Palestinian medical services, the aftermath of the conflict that has left over 1,300 dead-third of them children, are not only on the walls.


"Give a step forward if your father or your mother had died in martyrdom," said director of the Riyadh Maliha megaphone when the children were prepared by rows.

"Give her a step forward your house is destroyed," he added.


More than 20 children to come to join their families to access funds from the UN. Among them, Anas Abas, a shy boy of 12 years.

"They destroyed our house and killed five of my neighbors. The Jews were very close to our house," he said.


Like other children, is expressed in short sentences and often responds with a single word, the silent majority of what you have lived.

The director, Maliha, explains that in the first days of school teachers will try to get the children to express themselves.


"Encourage children to talk about what has happened to them, how to draw and write about it," he said. "Imagine how they will be talks. Tens of traumatized children return to school today," he added.

A Jitam Aziz Al Zukur psychologist, children will ask about the class on fire or on the holes that have left bombs on the walls.


"I wonder why they bombed the school and say they are afraid that (the Israelis) to come back. We say that the Jews will not return to attack the school, who are not afraid, they can play," he explains.

Half of Gaza's population is under 18 years and over 80% of the population now depends on the help of the UN to eat.

Both Israel and Hamas declared a unilateral ceasefire on Sunday and Israeli troops completed the withdrawal on Wednesday of a territory which have left thousands of homes in ruins.

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