RAMALLAH, West Bank, Aug 31 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Around a million Palestinian children started the new school year Saturday after weeks cooped up at home amid tight curfews imposed during Israel's two-month-old reoccupation of virtually the whole West Bank.

Only in the northern West Bank town of Jenin and in part of the flashpoint city of al Khalil (Hebron) did continuing curfew restrictions prevent children returning to school as planned, Palestinian education ministry officials said.

Children filled the streets of Ramallah. But if most were happy to leave their houses at last, confusion also reigned with some schools unprepared for such a massive student turnout, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

A case in point was Aytham, 10, who looked stunned after discovering his old school, managed by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees (UNWRA), no longer had any room for him.

"They turned my old school into a girls' school; I don't know where to go," he moaned, standing in front of yet another UNWRA school where he was sent to instead but had not yet registered. Teachers, meanwhile, struggled to accommodate the overflow of students.

"An additional hundred pupils showed up this morning," said Mohammed al-Matur, who heads Ramallah's all-male public high school.

"Their families moved from surrounding villages to Ramallah where they work and can't go back because of the closures. Now, we have to accommodate them."

He added his school was examining various options including opening an extra class or transferring them elsewhere.

Palestinian education minister Naim Aboul Hummous said his ministry was doing its best to take charge of the chaotic situation.

"Our 45,000 teachers are doing all they can to ensure the new school year starts smoothly, but they are facing enormous difficulties because of the Israeli blockade, curfews and army roadblocks," Aboul Hummous told AFP.

"Many teachers have had to travel to work on foot to get around the Israeli roadblocks." The minister also condemned the continuing curfews which had prevented children from getting to school in some areas.

He said 16 emergency committees had been set up across the West Bank and Gaza Strip to keep the security situation under review, close schools where necessary for pupil safety or transfer students.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) local representative Pierre Poupard, who was accompanying Aboul Hommous on a tour of the schools, stressed his organization's commitment to supporting the education ministry. "We will donate uniforms, satchels and stationary to 12,000 pupils from poor families," he said.

"We need the curfew to be lifted all day or it will be impossible to go ahead with the regular education process," said Jouman Qarman, head of the Palestinian education office in Nablus, reported Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz.

But the harsh situation on the ground was taking its toll on the children. Two female students, Hanan Abdallah and Wisam Matar, 17, complained about the Israeli checkpoints on their way to school.

The two girls had to cross an army checkpoint to reach Ramallah from the nearby refugee camp of Jalazon. They walked most of the way and were covered with dust. They looked exhausted although it was only 8:00 am.

Walking behind them, their schoolmate Dima Naji, 17, worried if the curfew would be lifted for them again on Sunday. "It's psychologically distressing not to know if we'll be able to reach our school tomorrow or the day after," she said.