Security was very tight today as approximately 1.9 million Israeli students began the new school year today. Policemen and armed guards were stationed outside the 3,700 schools and 8,500 kindergartens and daycare centers that opened today around the country. Only in scattered locations were there non-security related problems that delayed or prevented schools from opening today.
In Jerusalem\'s embattled southern neighborhood Gilo, contractors completed the installation of bulletproof school windows in time for the start of school. According to IDF instructions, all windows in schools and kindergartens facing Palestinian Authority-controlled areas were to be bulletproofed. Recent PA attacks against southern Jerusalem - before the IDF\'s entry and exit from Beit Jala - included light-weapons fire, 50-caliber machinegun fire and 60-millimeter mortar rounds, one of which struck a kindergarten last week. Ninety soldiers of the IDF Home Front Command will begin instructing teachers and pupils in Gilo how to react in the event of an Arab attack during school hours.
Prime Minister Sharon visited a first-grade class in Gilo today, and told the new pupils his memories of his first day in school. He said that he hopes that the \"front line community of Gilo will remain peaceful... We promised, and we will make sure that it happens.\" Several government ministers visited various schools throughout the country today, and the weekly Cabinet meeting on the 2002 budget was therefore pushed off until this afternoon.
The Mif\'al HaPayis Public Educational Lottery distributed 5,000 packages of sweets to first-grade pupils in Yesha today. Director Anat Keinan said that the purpose is to \"prop up the children\'s spirits during this period of security tensions.\"
In Jerusalem\'s embattled southern neighborhood Gilo, contractors completed the installation of bulletproof school windows in time for the start of school. According to IDF instructions, all windows in schools and kindergartens facing Palestinian Authority-controlled areas were to be bulletproofed. Recent PA attacks against southern Jerusalem - before the IDF\'s entry and exit from Beit Jala - included light-weapons fire, 50-caliber machinegun fire and 60-millimeter mortar rounds, one of which struck a kindergarten last week. Ninety soldiers of the IDF Home Front Command will begin instructing teachers and pupils in Gilo how to react in the event of an Arab attack during school hours.
Prime Minister Sharon visited a first-grade class in Gilo today, and told the new pupils his memories of his first day in school. He said that he hopes that the \"front line community of Gilo will remain peaceful... We promised, and we will make sure that it happens.\" Several government ministers visited various schools throughout the country today, and the weekly Cabinet meeting on the 2002 budget was therefore pushed off until this afternoon.
The Mif\'al HaPayis Public Educational Lottery distributed 5,000 packages of sweets to first-grade pupils in Yesha today. Director Anat Keinan said that the purpose is to \"prop up the children\'s spirits during this period of security tensions.\"