In Burj Qalaway, students return to windowless school, prefabricated classrooms

SOUTH LEBANON — Children carrying school bags walk through an unfinished concrete structure in Burj Qalaway (Bint Jbeil). The three-story building has no windows, doors, or paint. Nearby, prefabricated classrooms are being installed for students returning to the village's intermediate public school, months after the school was destroyed by an Israeli strike in May. The school sits on a hill overlooking Taybeh and Qantara, two heavily destroyed villages in the area.

This scene was captured by AFP photographer Anwar Amro on Thursday in a series of images that have been circulating heavily on social media.

The school year had resumed gradually across southern Lebanon, where some schools were damaged or destroyed and others are still sheltering people displaced by Israeli attacks since the last round of war that erupted on March 2. Education Minister Rima Karameh has recently said schools should reopen according to the circumstances of each school. During a Sept. 2 tour of the South, she visited Burj Qalaway's intermediate public school and announced the installation of prefabricated classrooms.

Rebuilding around the students

"The school was completely destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in May," principal May Mahdi told L’Orient Today on Friday. "We were building a kindergarten adjacent to the school when it was destroyed."

The nearby structure, which was under construction to house preschoolers, had been started in early 2024 before work stopped as the war escalated in September 2024. Construction has since resumed alongside preparations for temporary classrooms.

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"The school had around 600 students before its destruction. About 470 are attending this year," Mahdi said, "while some families who left southern Lebanon when the war escalated on March 2 have not returned."

"Students in Grades 7, 8, and 9 were among the first to return because they can be accommodated more easily in the prefabricated classrooms. Younger students are harder to accommodate under the current conditions," she explained noting that "the Council for the South is providing 16 prefabricated classroom. Each measures around 6 by 6 meters and can accommodate about 26 students."

Workers were still preparing the classrooms and the surrounding site, with sand being brought in for work on the kindergarten building. "We need the classrooms to be ready before the rain starts, and the winter season unfolds," Mahdi said.