Israel’s war leaves Lebanon’s schools balancing students and the displaced

Froun, Lebanon – Abbas Makki is the principal of a school in the village of Froun, in southern Lebanon. He sits behind the desk in his office, preparing for the return of students to his school, which is also doubling as a centre for displaced people in the village. Froun is littered with rubble from buildings destroyed by Israeli air strikes.

Local officials say most of the village still has no state-provided water or electricity. This means that as the return to the school year approaches in Lebanon, many of the displaced are unable to return home. He noted that the school reopened on the first day after a US-declared June truce was announced between Lebanon and Israel.

And now, after the summer break, it will reopen again – but continue to provide shelter for those in need. Israel’s war on Lebanon intensified for the second time in two years in March. Two days after Israeli and US attacks killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah responded by attacking Israel for the first time in more than a year.

The Israeli response to those strikes was devastating. The Israeli military re-invaded southern Lebanon – after largely pulling out in early 2025 – and forced the displacement of more than one million Lebanese, mostly from southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley in the east, and Beirut’s southern suburbs. In April, US-brokered direct negotiations between Israel and Lebanon began, despite Hezbollah’s preference for indirect talks.

In late June, a framework agreement was reached between the two sides, including “pilot zones” where Israel would pull out its troops and the Lebanese Army would enter to disarm Hezbollah. Froun, a town in the Bint Jbeil district about two hours’ drive south of Beirut, was one of three villages included in the pilot zone programme, despite local residents saying that Israel had never taken control of the town. Still, shortly after the framework agreement was announced, locals who had fled the fighting in the area started returning to the town, only to find piles of concrete rubble where their homes once stood.

Some, like Soujoud Ramadan, have taken to living at the local school. Ramadan now runs a small market by the entrance to the school, where she sells snacks and basic household necessities. She said she opened the market here because the town centre and its surrounding areas had been destroyed, forcing residents who need to visit a shop to travel by car to villages with less destruction.