After Iranian missile attacks on south, all schools to go remote Sunday and Monday

In-person study canceled for all students, including in special ed, after impacts in cities of Dimona and Arad; decision also follows cluster bomb damage to empty daycare in Rishon Lezion

All in-person instruction at Israeli schools will be cancelled on Sunday and Monday, Education Minister Yoav Kisch announced, shortly after Iranian missile attacks injured more than 100 people in the southern cities of Dimona and Arad.

In-person special education classes have likewise been canceled. Kisch said he made the decision to shut down the schools following a consultation with the IDF Home Front Command.

“Remote learning will take place across the country and in-person learning will not occur,” Kisch wrote on X Saturday night.

The announcement also followed an Iranian cluster bomb attack on Saturday morning that damaged an empty daycare in the central city of Rishon Lezion. Kisch visited the site of that attack on Saturday, where he announced he was canceling Passover camps at schools in 18 municipalities in central Israel.

The Israeli education system initially shut down on February 28, the first day of the US-Israeli war with Iran. But last week, schools in areas that were deemed to be at lower risk of Iranian attack were allowed to reopen, provided that students had access to shelters in the event of a missile strike. Now, those schools will close again.

On Tuesday, Passover break is set to begin at schools nationwide, with students not slated to return to classrooms until April 9, the day studies are scheduled to resume. The canceled Passover camps were due to operate during the break.

Now, by the end of the break, schools in major cities such as Jerusalem,  Tel Aviv and Haifa will have been closed for more than a month due to the war.

During his visit to the daycare, Kisch told reporters that the “Forum of 16,” which comprises 16 mayors and two regional council heads from central Israel, had already recommended canceling the Passover camps before the incident in Rishon Lezion.

“We spoke about the Passover camps issue yesterday and today, how it’s inappropriate and incorrect to open them here. We planned to reach a final decision on Saturday night, but in light of what happened, it was pretty obvious” that the camps shouldn’t open, Kisch said.

Last week, some municipalities that were allowed to open their schools opted to keep them closed due to the risk of missile fire. On the first day back to class, fewer than half of the eligible students returned to school, according to Education Ministry data.

One of the places that chose to keep schools closed was the city of Dimona, which was hit with a missile on Saturday. Others that decided against opening schools included the southern coastal city of Ashkelon and the West Bank settlement of Ariel.