Thousands of Lebanese students still displaced by war as school year nears 

(Reuters)

TYRE, Lebanon, Sept 4 – The schoolyard in southern Lebanon echoed with the squeals of playing ​children despite the beating sun and distant booms of Israeli airstrikes. But for most of the youth there, the public school isn’t where they learn. It’s ‌where they live.

Thousands of children remain displaced from their hometowns in Lebanon’s south six months after a new war erupted between Israel’s military and armed group Hezbollah. Many still live in schools-turned-shelters, while others are squeezed into rented apartments with their extended families.

As schools gear up for a new academic year beginning on September 15, families who sought shelter in public schools are wondering where they will go — and how their children can ​pick up schooling amid so much uncertainty.

Najah Ammar, a grandmother of four school-aged children, hails from the coastal village of Mansouri, but fled Israeli strikes to the public ​school in the city of Tyre, about 10 km (6 miles) north. About 200 other families now live in the school.

Ammar, 62, has two ⁠worries: where she’ll live if the school reopens, and how her grandchildren can catch up after losing years of schooling during repeated conflicts between Israel and Hezbollah since 2023.