As fighting in northern Israel continues to intensify, many schools in the region are severely underprepared to operate safely. Only half of the 268 educational institutions located between 3.5 and 9 kilometers from the northern border (about 2 to 5.5 miles) have functional shelters, and the other half are still planning or building shelters. That’s according to Orna Simhon, the Ministry of Education’s northern regional director, who made a report to the Knesset’s Education Committee on Tuesday.
Most of the schools that are protected from rocket fire have specific areas designated as shelters. That system works fine in areas of the country where rocket sirens go off a minute or so before people need to get to shelter. But in many parts of northern Israel, residents need to be in a protected space immediately upon hearing a siren, meaning that the entire school building has to be protected from rockets. Education Committee members said that this issue is most critical for daycares and preschools.
Two weeks ago, as Hezbollah ramped up strikes across the entire country, the Home Front Command designated three different levels of approved educational activities for different areas of the country. Schools in level 1 areas, which make up most of the country, can operate as usual. Educational activities in level 2 areas, which include Haifa, the Lower Galilee, Afula, and other surrounding towns, can operate only if a bomb shelter is immediately accessible. And educational activities in the Central Galilee, the Upper Galilee, the Golan, and the Confrontation Line area, which are considered level 3 areas, can only be held online.
Many educational institutions in level 2 municipalities don’t have enough sheltered areas to protect all the students at once, meaning that classes are being held both in person and online.
Some localities are frustrated with the new designations. Kibbutz Kfar Szold, which is located about 3 miles from the border with Lebanon, was recently reclassified as level 3, meaning that classes can only be held online. Pnina Bornstein, the community director of the kibbutz, expressed her frustration with this decision. “What’s the difference between this year and every previous year?” she asked the committee. “Why should the fact that rockets are being fired at Tel Aviv mean that I have to pay double? Return us to level 2 so that the children can have a framework and the parents can go to work.”
Level 3 municipalities are permitted to hold informal educational activities in bomb shelters as long as two adults are present. “It’s a euphemism for ‘do whatever you want,” Bornstein said. “Until now, security considerations have been taken into account, without thinking about the Home Front.”
Col. Yaron Visosser of the Home Front Command defended the unit. “It’s important to remember that regulations, and the levels too, save lives, and the goal is to maintain the security of children,” he said. “We are protecting every institution that the authority has said has classes and doesn’t have a protected space, according to the priorities and budgets that we receive. We do tours, we invest, we employ contractors who work even under fire. And there’s still a gap; we’re working to close it.”
Educational Committee Chair Yosef Taieb said that he would make an urgent appeal to the Finance Ministry to address the needs of communities in the Confrontation Line area that have not been evacuated. “We’re going forward with this at full strength,” he said. “It can’t be that after a year, nothing is progressing. We will hold as many follow-up discussions as it takes until the matter is dealt with.”
Taieb also asked the Home Front Command to provide the committee with updated data on the current degree of protection for educational institutions across the country and especially in northern Israel, including data on the budgets that had been assigned. He also requested that the unit complete a national plan for securing educational institutions as soon as possible.
This article was translated from Hebrew by Leah Schwartz.
