Lebanon postpones start of school year, as Israel steps up strikes

Lebanon on Sunday said the country would be postponing the start of the public school year as Israel escalates its air strikes against Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

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Education Minister Abbas Halabi said the new start date for more than one million students would be November 4, because of “security risks.”

Israel’s intensifying strikes on different Lebanese areas forced more than one million people to flee.

A top education ministry official said Sunday that nearly half of Lebanon’s 1.25 million school pupils have become displaced.

“There are 1.25 million pupils in Lebanese schools,” Director General of Education Imad Achkar said, and “40 percent of them of them have been displaced” by Israeli bombardment.

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