Many northern schools won’t open due to Hezbollah threats

Schools in non-evacuated northern communities may move classes further south to ensure students’ safety.

By World Israel News Staff

Education Minister Yoav Kisch said that schools in many communities in northern Israel – which have not been evacuated but suffer daily air raid sirens due to Hezbollah rocket and drone launches – will not open in time for the coming academic year, which begins next week on Sunday, September 1, 2024.

During a meeting with the heads of northern regional councils, Kisch said that he was personally pained by the decision, saying that his ministry would give support to communities to move their classes further south to ensure students’ safety.

Kisch stressed that only a full-blown military confrontation with Hezbollah – as opposed to the tit-for-tat exchanges which have defined much of the IDF’s policy towards Hezbollah over the past 10 months – would bring peace to the north.

The decision to avoid opening schools in areas under Hezbollah fire is “regrettable,” Kisch said, but “accepted with a heavy heart.”

The minister said he called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “and the heads of the security establishment to act now and with force against the state of Lebanon – there is no escaping the decision to wage a massive war against Lebanon in order to restore peace and stability to the residents of the North and for the future of the State of Israel.”

Kisch’s remarks were not well-received by local leaders, who slammed the government’s failure to act decisively against Hezbollah.

“I’m done with the show. We don’t start a school year in places that lack sufficient bomb shelters. We won’t allow another Majdal Shams” massacre, said Mateh Asher Regional Council chair Moshe Davidovitch, according to Hebrew-language media reports.

“The residents will suffer because [of this decision], but later they will be thankful that no one was hurt,” he continued.

“This government will never, ever be forgiven. The fact that you abandon us and burn us alive will forever be recorded. You abandon us and toss us to the dogs. The residents don’t matter to you.”