The fierce stench of rotten meals and burned furnishings greeted 19-year-old Fouad Abou Mrad and his father once they returned to their house within the southern suburbs of Beirut, a stark reminder of how Israeli assaults had upended their lives.
The scholar at Notre Dame College – Louaize and his household had deserted their house in Dahiyeh throughout Israel’s bombing campaign in September.
“Seeing the place that I grew up in in that state was simply surprising. I’ve by no means skilled that earlier than in my life. It was straight out of [a] horror movie,” he advised Al Jazeera, including that his house “smelled like lifeless our bodies”.
Abou Mrad stated he searched his destroyed house in early October for varsity provides – his laptop computer and different necessities – as a result of his college within the northern coastal metropolis of Zouk Mosbeh was beginning up programs once more.
The educational and futures of Lebanese college students had been disrupted by Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon with practically half of the nation’s 1.25 million college students displaced, in response to Lebanon’s Ministry of Schooling.
A temporary ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah group was carried out on November 27 however solely after months of bombings that left a psychological toll on younger individuals like Abou Mrad. He and different college students at the moment are making an attempt to settle again into an everyday routine and concentrate on passing their exams.
Abou Mrad, a hospitality and tourism administration main, is simply one of many tons of of 1000’s of younger individuals in Lebanon whose lives – and schooling – have been upended by the battle.
‘Nights from hell’
November 18 is a day Sajed Salem will always remember.
The 23-year-old southern Lebanese native lived alone on campus whereas attending Saint Joseph College of Beirut, positioned within the capital’s Ashrafieh space.
That week, Israeli forces had been bombing Beirut for days, what Salem referred to as “nights from hell”.
Regardless of the intensifying bombardment, in-person courses had resumed, and on that Monday, he was sitting in his culinary arts class when explosions went off close by. The blasts shook the constructing and the desks within the classroom.
“I used to be s***ting myself. I used to be crying, screaming,” Salem advised Al Jazeera.

‘Immense psychological toll’
Based on Maureen Philippon, the Lebanon nation director for the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), residing by way of conflicts like these hinders tutorial progress and burdens college students psychologically.
“Fixed publicity to violence, displacement and loss leaves [students] extremely confused and anxious, impairing their potential to focus, be taught and retain data,” Philippon advised Al Jazeera, including that the “psychological toll is immense”.
These results proceed even after the battle has ended.
“In Tyre, I noticed youngsters freaking out once they would hear a aircraft, placing their palms on their ears and looking out round in panic,” she stated, referring to town in southern Lebanon that Israel closely bombed.
Exams in a time of warfare
After the blasts shook the partitions of his classroom, Salem fled the identical day to Chouf in central Lebanon, the place a few of his family have been taking refuge.
“I referred to as my cousin. I advised him to right away come right here and decide me up,” he stated.
Salem’s village of Dweira in southern Lebanon was among the many first to be bombed when Israel escalated the war on September 23. His mom and siblings bought trapped of their house as a result of strikes, Salem stated.
Alone in Beirut, he couldn’t attain them by cellphone till the subsequent day, an agonising expertise he stated he wouldn’t want on his “worst enemy”.
After leaving for Chouf, Salem’s issues weren’t over. Faculty continued regardless of the bombings, and he was pressured to journey again to Beirut at the least a couple of times per week for exams.
Salem stated that through the fixed bombing, his instructor nonetheless held an examination regardless of college students asking for a reprieve. He, together with a lot of his classmates, failed the check.
“The examination was not that simple. He [the teacher] made it exhausting,” Salem stated. “I don’t know why. We advised him, ‘Have a look at the scenario. Please make it a bit simple for us.’”
The fitting to schooling
Whereas Salem was sad along with his instructor’s actions, specialists stated educators are important in serving to college students adapt to the challenges of warfare.
Nonetheless, Philippon famous that conflicts additionally have an effect on lecturers, making it obligatory for governments and humanitarian companies to offer help and sources.
Based on Ahmed Tlili, an affiliate professor of academic know-how at Beijing Regular College whose analysis focuses on schooling in warzones, worldwide regulation doesn’t adequately shield schooling throughout warfare.
Whereas worldwide humanitarian regulation protects youngsters’s proper to schooling in armed conflicts, Tlili stated these legal guidelines often are usually not carried out.
“This underscores the necessity for concerted efforts to make sure that worldwide legal guidelines defending schooling, particularly in warfare areas, are usually not merely rhetorical gestures however are actively upheld, enabling equitable entry to schooling for all, even within the midst of battle,” he advised Al Jazeera.
Worldwide humanitarian regulation additionally prohibits assaults on faculties and universities, classifying such acts as warfare crimes underneath the Rome Statute of the Worldwide Legal Courtroom, the specialists stated.
Making certain that schooling is supplied throughout wars is the accountability of these outdoors of warzones, Tlili stated, offering an instance of alternatives afforded to some college students from Gaza.
“We are able to see that in [the case of Gaza], a number of Arab universities have opened their doorways to enrol Palestinian college students with none restrictions,” he defined.
“We have now additionally seen that a number of worldwide course suppliers have waived charges for accessing programs for Palestinian college students and lecturers, permitting them to freely entry academic sources and instructing supplies.”

‘Artwork, research, our future’
Abou Mrad feels the wrestle to be taught through the battle was “unfair” to him and his fellow college students.
They spent their nights in terror, anguishing over whether or not they would see one another or their households once more when they need to have targeted on “artwork and research and our future”.
He stated he’s hoping for some normalcy to return to Lebanon.
“We don’t know what can come subsequent, … however we have now to attempt to transfer ahead usually,” Abou Mrad stated.
Others, like Salem, stated residing in southern Lebanon particularly hasn’t been “regular” since Israel’s warfare on Gaza started. Even with the ceasefire, the violence hasn’t stopped, and Israel is accused of violating the settlement tons of of occasions.
And now, with the toppling of Bashar al-Assad in December in neighbouring Syria, Salem is much more unsure about what is going to occur subsequent.
“I’m completely happy for our Syrian brothers and sisters who bought their freedom from the Assad regime and all the pieces,” Salem stated, “however we have now to concentrate to what comes subsequent. … It’s [going to] have an effect on us as Lebanese.”