GAZA CITY: Palestinian children started their school year on Saturday hoping that Israel’s withdrawal from the war-weary Gaza Strip meant they were free of the military raids that made their student days a nightmare.

One million pupils returned to schools across the West Bank and Gaza, as Israel was putting the finishing touches on its Gaza Strip withdrawal, ending its 38-year occupation of the impoverished Mediterranean coastal strip.

Children wearing their blue school uniforms crowded dusty playgrounds from Gaza City to its southern border, some laughing, others crying and dreading their first day back after a hot summer.

For these youths, it is hard to think of a year where tragedy did not penetrate the classroom, or when students did not know a friend, relative or even a teacher claimed by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Under the occupation, schools could unexpectedly close down because of an Israeli army offensive.

On a few occasions, Israeli fire strafed schools, leaving pupils dead.

Mindful of the recent past, Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas greeted students on Saturday morning at Gaza City’s Palestine secondary school, promising them a brighter future.

“The Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip will be good for all students. There will be no more obstacles, no more checkpoints,” Abbas told students and teachers outside the building.

“Students will be able to travel freely. The shelling is finished. The elderly will be able to live in peace.

“You paid a heavy price. We appreciate your sacrifice.”

In the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis, walled in by the now abandoned Jewish settlement of Gush Katif, students were desperate to believe their town would no longer be a frontline.

Thirteen-year-old Abdul Raham al-Astal said he missed 20 to 30 school days last year because of the turmoil of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Yasser Arafat’s death.

“Sometimes, the Israelis started shelling and I was too frightened to sleep,” Astal says.

Naher Spier, 14, who lived close to Morag settlement outside Khan Yunis, often found the road blocked to school by Israeli forces.

“I’m very happy. Before, every day there was shooting. It was hard to get home after school, and I would be afraid when I was doing my homework.”—AFP