Mohammed Hamad, 14, was on his way home from school in Deir el-Balah on October 17 when an Israeli strike targeted the road he was travelling along.
He had finished classes at the makeshift school and was walking home through the al-Baraka neighbourhood with his 10-year-old brother, Abdullah. Mohammed was killed in the strike along with another man. Abdullah survived.
Mohammed was Riyad Hamad\u2019s third child, an eighth-grade student among the top pupils in his class. His loss is difficult for the 44-year-old father to comprehend.
\u201cHe was not just my son, he was my friend,\u201d Hamad told Al Jazeera from his family tent in Deir el-Balah. \u201cHe was doing so well. May God have mercy on him.\u201d
The family has struggled to come to terms with the death of a boy whose schoolwork and achievements had been a source of pride.
\u201cMohammed used to ask me: \u2018How am I with you?\u2019 I swear, I never asked him for anything more,\u201d he said.
The loss has also left a deep mark on Abdullah, who now fears losing his father, too.
\u201cHe has become very afraid of going to school. They used to go together every day and come back together. Now he cannot come to terms with having to go on his own,\u201d Hamad said.
\u201cWe are living in fear. When I go out into the streets, I swear I am afraid. Even when I am walking or sitting in a car, my heart is filled with fear \u2026 Why should our children have to live with this constant fear and anxiety, even until the last moment?
\u201cEnough is enough. The child is supposed to bury his father, not the father bury his child. They have turned the order of things upside down.\u201d
The gradual return of children to school \u2013 even in makeshift classrooms and tents \u2013 had offered families in Gaza some hope of restoring a sense of normality after years of disruptions.
But Israeli air raids and sniper fire have continued, despite a ceasefire being established last October for Gaza. Since then, Israel has killed at least 1,574 Palestinians and injured 5,687 in Gaza, according to the enclave\u2019s Ministry of Health.
The academic year resumed in Gaza on September 19, after nearly three years of disruptions caused by Israel\u2019s war \u2013 and with it came more Israeli strikes.
Ten children aged from six to 16 and a teacher were killed between October 18 and 24. In a statement last Sunday, the Ministry of Education said that two girls were wounded during morning assembly at Muradiya School in Jabalia on October 21. Five students were also injured, some critically, in an attack on the Islamic University campus in Gaza City on Sunday.
The ministry called for urgent international action to protect students, schools and universities in Gaza.
The risks are particularly high for schools located near the so-called \u201cYellow Line\u201d, a point that divided Gaza\u2019s territory between Israeli and Palestinian control as part of the October 2025 \u201cceasefire\u201d agreement. The line has moved westward to give Israel control of more than 65 percent of Gaza, according to the United Nations, up from the 53 percent agreed upon a year ago
At least 66 Palestinian children have been killed close to the Yellow Line, and pupils and teachers travelling near this zone remain in mortal danger from Israeli snipers and bombs.
On October 21, Suad Abd Rabbo, a fourth-grade student, went to school carrying her bag and books. Not long afterwards, her older sister rushed home shouting that Suad had been shot.
\u201cI ran out barefoot,\u201d Suad\u2019s mother, Aliaa Abd Rabbo, recalled. \u201cWhen I saw her, I was confused. I didn\u2019t know what to do. She was bleeding, crying and screaming.\u201d
The bullet struck Suad above the knee and lodged in a sensitive area close to her nerves and tendons. She was rushed to hospital, where doctors warned that trying to remove it could cause paralysis. They operated on Suad but were still unable to extract the bullet, which remains in her leg.
Abd Rabbo remembers when Suad came round from the anaesthesia after surgery and started reciting a passage she had been preparing for a school dictation exercise.
\u201c\u2018O symbol of generosity and resilience \u2026 When I feel tired, I sit under an olive tree in the yard of our home, and feel rested after the exhaustion,\u201d her mother recalled her saying.
Suad has since been discharged from hospital and has returned to her tent, where she remains unable to walk or move around. She needs surgery abroad to fully recover, but with Israel tightly controlling exit and entry from Gaza, her prospects of proper treatment are remote.
\u201cSuad is now deeply frustrated. She cries and asks: \u2018Why did this happen to me? Why was I targeted? What did I do?\u2019\u201d Abd Rabbo said.
Israeli tanks, military vehicles and cranes regularly open fire close to their tent in northern Gaza, particularly after sunset. Families often have to lie flat on the ground for hours to avoid the stray bullets that ricochet through the camp.
\u201cMy heart hurts when I send the girls to school. I told my husband I regret coming back from the south,\u201d Abd Rabbo said about their return home to Jabalia after fleeing to Deir el-Balah during the war.
Another girl was also injured on the same day as Suad as students at Muradiya School were preparing for assembly at about 10:30am, Naim Aloush, the school\u2019s principal, said.
\u201cThe girls had formed two lines \u2026 one suddenly screamed and fell to the ground \u2026 another girl standing nearby was struck by a bullet in her side,\u201d she told Al Jazeera.
Teachers rushed to the girls and found that Suad had been shot while the second pupil, Amina Khader, a fifth-grade student, sustained a minor injury to her abdomen.
Aloush said the shooting sent fear through the school, with parents rushing to collect their children.
Pupils who had witnessed the incident were left terrified, and the school saw a marked increase in absenteeism in the days that followed.
The principal sees this incident as part of wider dangers facing the school in the al-Ghubari area, west of Jabalia al-Balad, consisting of 20 educational tents and serving about 1,000 pupils in the surrounding community, close to the Yellow Line.
Aloush said stray bullets or projectiles \u2013 from Israeli artillery, quadcopter drones and snipers \u2013 still regularly hit the school.
\u201cEducation is under fire, and our whole lives are under fire. At any moment, there can be gunfire. It is not light \u2026 it comes down like rain,\u201d she told Al Jazeera.
\u201cEvery day, I come to school with my hand over my heart, afraid that one of my pupils or a member of the teaching staff might be hit.\u201d
Amina, the other child injured along with Suad, has been left deeply traumatised by the incident, her father, Khaled Khader, said.
Khader said he rushed to the school after hearing that Amina had been injured and carried his daughter to a nearby clinic.
\u201cThere was terror, absolute terror. My daughter was in shock. She broke down, started screaming and collapsed,\u201d Khader told Al Jazeera.
\u201cThank God she is safe \u2026 but the psychological impact of what happened will take years to overcome.\u201d
Amina has since been afraid to return to school. Her family tried taking her back once, but she left early, unable to bear the sound of the gunfire.
\u201cShe is now afraid of the school itself. She keeps dreaming about her classmate lying there with blood running from her,\u201d Khader said.
He said the incident had also left him afraid for the rest of his children and his wife, with Israeli air raids, random gunfire and shelling continuing to affect streets near the school.
\u201cWe are confused about what to do. Do we keep our children away from school and deprive them of their education, or do we send them out, knowing that they could be targeted at any moment?\u201d Khader said. \u201cA student needs stability to be able to learn. But we have no stability, and there are no alternatives.\u201d
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Mohammed Hamad, 14, was on his way home from school in Deir el-Balah on October 17 when an Israeli strike targeted the road he was travelling along.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":15017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c42-articles"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n