METULA – For the first time in three years, Israel’s northernmost community reopened its Hanadiv Elementary School on Tuesday, with 36 students in grades one to six. Another 18 children began the school year in a freshly reopened kindergarten.

The Metula school had been closed from October 8, 2023, when Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones at Israel in solidarity with fellow terror group Hamas. The picturesque town became the scene of near-daily devastation, forcing nearly all of its 2,100 residents to flee. Prior to the 2023 war, 55 children had attended the elementary school.

Since the November 27, 2024, ceasefire, roughly 65% of the town’s residents on the Israel-Lebanon border have returned, a Metula spokesperson told The Times of Israel. Today, the northern border felt peaceful, with IDF soldiers sitting in cafes enjoying the relatively mild weather.

Speaking with The Times of Israel at the celebratory school reopening, Metula native Shimon Gino said he moved back a month ago with his wife, Noa, and their four children.

“Moving back here won’t be easy, but kids can adjust, and they’re very excited,” Shimon said. “We have to rebuild the community from scratch.”

One of the Gino children started school during COVID-19, then went to two different schools during the family’s relocation, and has now returned to school in Metula for sixth grade. He recalled that when he was a student here in the early 1980s, there were far more children — 17 in each grade.

But the scars of war are everywhere.

Because of its proximity to the border, the town wasn’t subjected only to rocket and drone attacks, but also to anti-tank missiles. Out of 650 homes in Metula, 460 sustained damage from attacks, 120 of them severely. And the danger continues: On August 18, six foreign workers were injured, two of them seriously, when an old explosive detonated in an agricultural field in the town.

Some agricultural orchards have yet to bloom again,........

© The Times of Israel