Some 2.5 million children headed back to school and kindergarten on Monday for the first day of the 2025-2026 academic year, and thousands of them returned to schools in the Gaza and northern Israeli border communities for the first time since they were evacuated after the October 7, 2023, attack nearly two years ago.

In the south, local leaders hailed the return as a symbol of hope and visiting US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee met with students, later posting on X that seeing them come back to schools in the devastated communities was a sign that “that evil didn’t win!”

Meanwhile, students in dozens of high schools held a day of strikes and protests, calling for the release of the hostages still held in Gaza.

After meeting with Huckabee, Eshkol Regional Council chief Michal Uziyahu hailed the bittersweet return of children to the ravaged communities.

“We have waited so long for this moment. We must still remember that we have more students that are waiting to return to us, and we of course must remember that we have 48 hostages still in captivity, 15 of whom are actually members of our community,” she said.

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“The eyes of the entire State of Israel are on us, because we are a community that has become a symbol of hope, strength and life, and this is a tremendous responsibility — but it also gives us tremendous strength,” she added, saying that IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir “even told me a few days ago that seeing us start the year is one of the most important elements of our victory.”

“I’m reminded today that evil didn’t win!” wrote Huckabee, celebrating that “Hamas is near annihilation and these children are starting school” only “a few hundred yards from Gaza.”

My day started at 1st day of school in Eshkol district just a few hundred yards from Gaza. Many of the children had parents or friends murdered or taken hostage. I’m reminded today that evil didn’t win! Hamas is near annihilation and these children are starting school. https://t.co/5oEIjuJsGI

— Ambassador Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) September 1, 2025

Huckabee added that many of the schoolchildren “had parents or friends murdered or taken hostage” by the terror group.

Huckabee was quoted in Hebrew media reports as telling the children: “Very bad people tried to prevent you from starting this day, but one of the things I appreciate most about Israelis: No matter how many times they try to stop you: you get right back up and keep going.”

According to Ynet, the principal of the Shachar Eshkol school, Eyal Dvori, told Huckabee during his visit that the school’s art teacher, Yaffa Rudaeff, “is still waiting” for her partner Lior, whose body is being held by Hamas in Gaza, and asked the envoy to “do everything in your power to bring back the hostages and end the war.”

Israeli students on the first day of school at Sdot Eshkol elementary school, September 1, 2025. (Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90)

The Tekumah Directorate, responsible for the rehabilitation of the area in southern Israel bordering the Gaza Strip, reported that 23,522 children in the region started the new school year Monday, adding that this reflected a continued return of many residents to the area following the Hamas attack, plus some demographic growth.

This figure is 1,763 (8 percent) higher than last year. However, the directorate did not release figures from before the October 7 onslaught, during which Hamas-led terrorists stormed the border communities, killing some 1,200 people and kidnapping 251 hostages to Gaza, sparking the ongoing war.

In the Eshkol area, which includes the areas hit hardest by the Hamas-led attacks, the rise in the total number of pupils starting school was 22.5% compared to last year, according to the directorate. There are 35% more children under the age of three, 5.5% more kindergarteners, and 17% more elementary school-age children, in a reflection of the return of families to the communities.

Israeli students on the first day of school at Sdot Eshkol elementary school, September 1, 2025.
(Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90)

Northern resilience

In addition, 95% of all students who were evacuated from 32 communities in the north returned to school on Monday, according to the Education Ministry, after they were displaced due to the conflict with the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, which began firing rockets into Israel a day after Hamas’s attack.

In October 2023, there were 30,141 students registered in the school districts. As of Monday, there were 28,640 returning students to schools in the area.

Children arrive to their first day of school at the Gamla School in the northern Israeli town of Katzrin, on September 1, 2025 (Michael Giladi/Flash90)

According to the ministry’s records, 86% of students have returned in Kiryat Shmona. At the largest school, ORT Danziger, the ministry said the number of enrolled students exceeds the figures from before the war.

In Metula 34% of its students have returned. Students from Metulla’s Hanadiv Elementary School will study at the Mevo Galil in Kibbutz Ayelet HaShahar for one year. The Ministry also said that 97% of the teachers have returned to teach in former evacuated zone in the north.

President Isaac Herzog visits children at the Rambam school in Kiryat Shmona on the first day of the school year, praising the northern town for its perseverance throughout Israel’s fight against Lebanon’s terror group Hezbollah since the war in Gaza began.

First graders sit in their classroom on the first day of school in Jerusalem, September 1, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

“In the past two years [Kiryat Shmona] has… stood at the front line, on the border, against a terrible and relentless assault,” Herzog told children at the school, which was damaged during the war and resumed activity about six months ago, according to a statement from his office.

Herzog was accompanied by Kiryat Shmona Mayor Avichai Stern, the statement adds.

“You left your homes, some of you stayed behind to defend the town — and here we are now, as a symbol of courage, a symbol of victory,” he continued.

Herzog joined the school’s students and teaching staff in releasing yellow balloons, as a symbol of solidarity with the remaining hostages in Gaza.

President Isaac Herzog visits children at the Rambam school in Kiryat Shmona on September 1, 2025 (Courtesy/President’s Residence)

“May we know better days, and may our prayer be fulfilled to see all the hostages return home as quickly as possible,” the president said.

Teacher shortages

The Education Ministry said that across the country, there were approximately 180,600 students entering first grade this year, and 149,000 entering twelfth grade.

The ministry also claimed that the system is suffering a shortage of only 488 teachers, despite a Ynet report two weeks ago that found that there were 4,254 educators lacking.

The ministry under Education Minister Yoav Kisch has undergone a tumultuous year, including several teacher strikes and shortages, serious budget issues and a controversial change to public school curriculum, which mandated an hour of Bible study each week for all students in first to twelfth grade, as well as additional mandatory classes on Zionism and “Israel’s wars and rebirth.”

For the first time in Israel’s history, this year thousands more children began first grade in religious Jewish schools than in secular ones, according to data the Education Ministry provided to The Times of Israel. Experts say the change could be a harbinger of a large-scale shift in Israeli society.

Students protest outside their school in Jerusalem, calling for the release of hostages held in Gaza, September 1, 2025 (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Students strike for hostages

The first day of the academic year was also marked with protests and strikes from high school students from dozens of schools across the country, calling for an immediate hostage release and ceasefire deal to end the war in the Gaza Strip.

The students said they refused to return to classes in light of the continuation of the Gaza war and the government’s perceived foot-dragging in ceasefire deal negotiations.

“We are not willing to learn to live in a world in which the hostages are murdered in Hamas tunnels and the Israeli government does not even bother to discuss the deal on the table, and therefore we will not allow the school year to begin as usual,” the students said in a statement.

גבעתיים pic.twitter.com/X8UndAavlq

— Ella Kône’???????????????????? (@EllaKone) September 1, 2025

“Today we are high school students, but in a year or two we will all be in [military] uniform,” the teens continued. “We want, and need, to know that when we go to the front, our country will stand behind us and uphold the moral and ethical contract on which we were educated.”

According to the Haaretz newspaper, students from 45 high schools across the country vowed to strike on the first day of classes.

Teenage protesters demanding a hostage-ceasefire deal set fire to desks while blocking Tel Aviv’s Ayalon Highway on August 31, 2025. (Noam Halaby-Senerman/Israeli Pro-Democracy Protest Movement)

On Sunday, dozens of teenage protesters blocked traffic on Tel Aviv’s Ayalon Highway and set fire to classroom desks, demanding a general strike ahead of the start of the academic year.

Police arrested two protesters, a 17-year-old boy and a 35-year-old woman, on suspicion of disorderly conduct. Around 20 others were detained and later released.