Gaza Herald _At this time every year, markets across the Gaza Strip would normally be preparing for the busy back-to-school season. Clothing stores would hang school uniforms in their windows, children’s backpacks would fill storefront displays, and stationery shops would be crowded with parents searching for notebooks, pens, and other school supplies. For families, preparing children for the new academic year was once a familiar part of the annual household budget.
But that reality has changed dramatically since Israel’s war on Gaza began.
Today, much of Gaza has been stripped of the familiar signs of a new school year. There are no long lines outside school clothing stores, no rush to buy new backpacks, and no crowded stationery shops.
The crisis is no longer simply about whether families can afford school supplies. A more fundamental question now confronts parents: Where will our children go with these supplies? Where will they sit and learn?
After years of war, destruction, and displacement, Gaza’s back-to-school season has been transformed from an important social and commercial occasion into something almost entirely absent, reflecting the devastating collapse of both the education system and the local economy.
A Market Without a Season
A clothing store owner in Gaza City told the Palestinian Information Center’s correspondent that this period of the year used to be one of the most important sales seasons.
“In previous years, we would start preparing school clothes weeks before the beginning of the academic year,” he said. “We would stock large quantities of shirts, pants, and school uniforms. This year, there is no season at all. People may occasionally ask about prices, but their priorities have changed completely.”
Families living in displacement camps or tents can no longer consider buying new school clothes a priority, especially as they struggle to secure food, water, shelter, and other basic necessities.
“Even if a child has somewhere to attend classes, many parents simply cannot set aside money for new clothes or a backpack,” he said. “Old clothes are being used for as long as possible. The priority now is whatever is necessary for survival.”
The same situation can be seen in shops selling backpacks and shoes, where the seasonal demand that once accompanied the approach of a new school year has almost completely disappeared.
Stationery Shops Without Customers
The scene is equally quiet in Gaza’s bookstores and stationery shops.
The annual season for notebooks, pens, colors, backpacks, and other educational supplies would normally begin weeks before schools reopened. Today, however, that familiar activity is largely gone.
“We used to know that August and September were the season for notebooks and stationery,” said Wasim, a bookstore owner in central Gaza. “Now we cannot really talk about a season in the commercial sense. Purchasing is extremely limited, and when people do buy something, they only purchase what is absolutely necessary.”
He explained that the problem goes beyond families’ declining purchasing power. The nature of education itself has changed, with a large number of children no longer attending regular schools as they did before the war.
“A notebook and a pen are connected to the existence of a school and a clear beginning to the academic year,” he said. “When schools are not functioning normally, it becomes difficult to have a normal stationery season.”
Families With Different Priorities
For Gaza’s families, the shift in priorities has been even more painful.
Umm Mohammed, a mother of three children in elementary school, said that preparing for the school year was once an occasion the family looked forward to despite the financial burden.
“We used to take the children to the market and choose clothes, backpacks, and notebooks,” she told the Palestinian Information Center’s correspondent. “Today, the reality is completely different. The first thing I think about is not buying a new backpack. I think about where my children will be able to learn and whether there will even be a safe and suitable classroom for them.”
Umm Salah, who is displaced and living in one of the UNRWA schools in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, said that even if schools requested uniforms or stationery, many families would be unable to provide them.
“People are trying to secure food, water, and basic necessities,” she said. “Buying new school clothes has become a secondary concern.”
These experiences reflect a broader transformation in the lives of Gaza’s families. The return-to-school season is no longer a regular part of the annual rhythm of life. Instead, it has become dependent on whether children can find a safe place to learn and whether families can reach it.
A Devastating Education Crisis
The disappearance of the school season is inseparable from the unprecedented crisis facing Gaza’s education system.
Recent UN data illustrates the enormous disruption caused by the war. According to UNICEF, the education of approximately 700,000 students has been disrupted, while 60 percent of school-age children still lack access to in-person learning.
In a report published on April 30, 2026, UNICEF said that around 56,000 children had reached first-grade age during the war, with many of them having never experienced a regular classroom environment.
In its latest report, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on August 14 that education partners had installed shade structures across ten temporary learning spaces in northern Gaza and Gaza City to improve learning conditions during the intense summer heat. More than 300,000 children continued to participate in summer learning programs.
These figures reveal the kind of education currently being improvised for Gaza’s children: temporary spaces and emergency programs replacing traditional schools, in an effort to prevent an entire generation from being completely cut off from learning.
In an earlier report published on August 7, OCHA said Gaza’s humanitarian situation remained critical amid continuing military activity and damage to civilian infrastructure, including educational facilities. The agency noted that assessments continued to show rising levels of structural damage across the Strip.
A School Season Missing From Children’s Lives
In Gaza, the absence of the school season is visible not only in quiet markets and empty stationery shops, but in the lives of children themselves.
There are no new backpacks waiting to be packed, no notebooks prepared for the first day of class, and no parents debating the color of a school uniform.
Instead, families face a far more urgent question: Where will their children learn, and will they have a safe place to do so?
Behind the missing back-to-school season lies the story of a generation deprived of some of childhood’s simplest routines: a morning school bell, friends in a classroom, a teacher calling their name, and a notebook waiting to be filled.
For Gaza’s parents, the hope is simple: that one day, preparing for school will again mean choosing backpacks and uniforms, not searching for a safe place for their children to learn.
