Coming academic year impedes 'Israel's' Lebanon strategy: Reuters

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Reuters
3 Jun 2024 12:54
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An Israeli high school principal expresses doubt that Israelis evacuated from Kiryat Shmona will return to the northern settlement.

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A burnt car and damage to apartments from rockets fired by Hezbollah on Kiryat Shmona, northern occupied Palestine, on the border with Lebanon, Thursday, February 29, 2024 (AP)

The start of the academic year on September 1 in Israeli settlements in northern occupied Palestine has sparked open disagreements within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, challenging its unity and credibility amid the ongoing fighting with Hezbollah, Reuters reported.

Since October 8, the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon has fired thousands of rockets, anti-tank missiles, and drones from Lebanon toward settlements and military outposts in the Upper al-Jalil and the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. The daily attacks have caused extensive damage to housing units, buildings, and infrastructure, significantly undermining the security of many settlers.

Israeli occupation Education Minister Yoav Kisch told Reuters that "Israel" is spending $38 million in constructing new kindergartens and schools just outside the rocket range in the north, ready to accommodate children if "Israel" insists on the war and their original schools remain unsafe by September 1.

Kisch indicated that preparing northern schools in damaged northern settlements for the next academic year will take at least a month.

The Minister said teachers are reporting that many of the evacuated Israeli students are struggling in their temporary accommodations, with high-school drop-out rates reaching 5%, nearly double the occupation entity's "national" average.

Ofer Zafrani, principal of Danziger High School, now relocated near Tel Aviv, expressed doubt that Israelis evacuated from Kiryat Shmona will return to the settlement, saying, "I think that there is a limit that we passed. It's too much."

His remarks echo a new study conducted by Tel Hai Academic College, which revealed that around 40% of evacuees from the settlements in northern occupied Palestine are contemplating not returning even after the war ends.

In mid-May, Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah addressed the settlers in northern occupied Palestine who are eager to return to their settlements, calling on them to pressure their government to end the ongoing aggression on the Gaza Strip.