Israeli students head back to school in town ravaged by Hamas

Cheerful music welcomed children apprehensively returning to school amid heavy security on Sunday in Sderot, one of the Israeli towns near the Gaza border attacked by Hamas on Oct. 7. Gunfire could be heard from the direction of Gaza, just a few kilometres away, as education officials said thousands of children are set to return this week to Sderot schools, after Israel's military said it was safe for them to do so. Sderot, which for years has been a frequent target of Palestinian rocket attacks, was one of the larger towns targeted by Hamas in the cross-border attack that sparked the war which has been raging in Gaza for nearly five months.