In the war in Gaza, Israel’s bombing campaign has done nothing to spare schools, universities and other educational facilities. Indeed, the vast destruction of these institutions is evidence of the Israeli military's systematic policy against the strip’s education system, which aims to destroy any place for study in Gaza after the war.
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According to witnesses and reports by human rights groups, the Israeli army also has turned many universities into military barracks and interrogation sites before blowing them up.
According to the Palestinian Education Ministry, there are 796 schools in Gaza (442 government-run schools, 70 private schools and 248 others run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees), and 17 institutions for higher education, attended by about 87,000 students.
According to the NGO Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, 100 European academics have signed a petition condemning Israel’s systematic destruction of the educational system in Gaza.
"Israeli military actions may amount to premeditated killing and destruction, i.e. an attempt to kill and silence scholars involved in the Palestinian education system, which would have a massive impact on Palestinian future generations," the petition said, adding that the attacks on educational and cultural centers that are classified as historical or cultural monuments amount to war crimes and “also fall under the purview of genocide.”
Premeditated destruction
One of the institutions that has been bombed is the most prominent Al-Azhar University, which had 15,000 students and 600 academic and administrative employees. According to the University’s Board of Directors, the Israeli military has blown up the university’s buildings with explosives, especially its new branch south of Gaza city.
Other universities targeted by the Israeli military include the Islamic University, the Palestine University and Al-Aqsa University, where the university’s National Museum with its more than 3,000 rare artifacts was also bombed.
Dozens of schools have been destroyed or damaged in the war. The Palestinian Education Ministry said 278 government schools and 65 UNRWA-affiliated institutions with were bombed and vandalized. Of them, 83 have been severely damaged, and seven were completely destroyed.
The ministry also said that in occupied West Bank, Israeli forces have stormed and vandalized 38 schools since the war broke out on Oct. 7.
Shelling craters in schoolyards
According to a March report by UNICEF and NGOs the Education Cluster and Save The Children (which counts 563 school buildings in Gaza), 165 of the 212 that received a direct hit are in areas designated for evacuation by the Israeli military. In the North Gaza governorate, the most severely affected area to date, 86.2% of school buildings were either directly hit or damaged.
67% of schools in Gaza “will either need full reconstruction or major rehabilitation work to be functional again."
The “high trend of attacks on school facilities” has worsened the already dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, the report said, noting that satellite imagery and other sources “provide evidence of military use of schools” by the Israel since the beginning of the war.
That includes "reports, pictures and videos showing that schools are being used for military operations by ISF (Israeli Security Forces), including use as detention, interrogation centers and military bases.”
Satellite pictures in the report also showed military tanks, their tracks and craters from shelling in school premises in February, the report said.
Unfit for life
Once the war ends, at least 67% of schools in Gaza “will either need full reconstruction or major rehabilitation work to be functional again," the report said.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor head Ramy Abdu said attacks on educational institutions will have long-term repercussions on school children in Gaza. Israel’s widespread and deliberate destruction of cultural and historical properties, such as universities, schools, libraries, and archives, comes within the framework of its public policy of making Gaza unfit for life, Abdu said.
It aims at “creating a coercive environment that lacks the minimum necessities of life and services, which may ultimately push its residents to immigration."