STANDARDPOLITICAL
Israel schools may reopen Sunday — conditional on Saturday Home Front assessment, Tel Aviv and north excluded
·Israel
Education Minister Kisch: outline defined — some schools could reopen Sunday if Home Front Command gives green light Saturday night. First stage: special ed, daycares, grades 1,2,11,12 only, in 'yellow' areas near protected spaces. Tel Aviv and northern Israel excluded — too heavy a fire zone. Distance learning continues.
Israeli Education Minister Yoav Kisch confirmed that a gradual reopening of schools in certain areas of Israel may happen on Sunday, contingent on the Home Front Command's security assessment on Saturday night. 'The outline has been defined,' Kisch said. 'There is a process in which local authorities might be classified as yellow. What does yellow mean? It means that educational activities will be allowed adjacent to a standard protected space.' Schools closed across Israel when Ben Gurion Airport's airspace shut on February 28 at the outbreak of the war. In the first stage, only special education schools, daycares, and grades 1, 2, 11, and 12 are set to potentially reopen — the most vulnerable students (youngest and oldest) whose educational and social needs are most acute. The greater Tel Aviv area (Gush Dan) and northern Israel are explicitly excluded from Sunday reopening due to the intensity of Iranian missile and Hezbollah rocket fire. Kisch also confirmed that distance learning will continue in all areas regardless. The conditional school reopening reflects a broader Israeli government effort to normalize civilian life while the war continues — a politically sensitive balance between security and economic/social functionality.
Sources