Nuseirat, Gaza Strip – Nibal Abu Armana sits in her tent, where she has been teaching her seven-year-old son, Mohammed, basic literacy and numbers.Nibal, a 38-year-old mother of six, is forced to rely on the dim light from a battery-powered LED lamp.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listAfter two hours, Nibal and Mohammed’s eyes are exhausted.This is what education is like for many in Gaza. The majority of Palestinians in the enclave live like Nibal and her family: displaced and forced to survive in temporary shelters barely fit for habitation.But Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, which has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians, has gone on for more than two years, and the necessary reconstruction is unlikely to happen any time soon.The majority of school buildings have been damaged or destroyed by Israel, along with the majority of other structures in Gaza. Many of the school structures that remain are now used as shelters for displaced families.And students – both children at schools and young adults at universities – have largely missed any form of regular education since the war began in October 2023.“My children used to have a routine before the war: wake up early, go to school, get back home, have lunch, play, write homework, and sleep early,” Nibal told Al Jazeera. “There was a sense of discipline.”Now, she said, her children’s days are structured around their basic needs: sourcing water, getting meals from a charity kitchen, and finding something to burn on the fire for cooki …
