Students enrolled at North Sinai’s Arish University will be returning to their lecture halls on Saturday as classes resume after almost five months of suspension due to a major counter-terrorism campaign in the area.

North Sinai governorate has decided to allow the university and a number of other higher education facilities in Arish to resume operations, according to a statement from governorate officials reported by Al-Ahram Al-Massai daily on Thursday.

The students to return to Arish University are those in their final year of studies. Buses will be provided to transfer them to the campus, the statement said.

It was not immediately clear whether students in other years would also be returning to classes.

In February, classes at universities and schools in Arish were suspended when the Egyptian military launched a major counter-terrorism operation.

The operation, dubbed Operation Sinai 2018, aims to target and destroy “terrorist and criminal elements and organisations” in northern and central Sinai, parts of the Nile Delta and the country's Western Desert, the military has said.

Final-year high school students in North Sinai have also returned to their schools to sit the end-of-year thanaweya amma exams, which determine university placement. Officials in the governorate have been reported as saying that the process is running smoothly.

On Thursday, the Egyptian army said it had killed 32 takfiris and arrested dozens of suspects, bringing the total number of those killed since Operation Sinai 2018 began to more than 300, including at least 37 military personnel, according to calculations based on military statements.