Since the outbreak of the Israel–Hamas war on 7 October 2023, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has conducted numerous airstrikes on more than 200 educational facilities, including universities, in the Gaza Strip. The IDF states such airstrikes are the result of the placement of military infrastructure and rocket launching from civilian areas, including schools. By late March 2024, the United Nations recorded more than 200 Israeli attacks on schools in Gaza, with at least 53 schools totally destroyed. By July 2024, all 19 Gaza universities had suffered severe damage with 80% of university buildings destroyed, 103 academics killed, and 90,000 students enrolled in higher education no longer able to pursue their studies. In June 2024, UNOCHA stated 76 percent of Gaza's schools required "full reconstruction or major rehabilitation", and in August 2024, UNICEF stated 564, or 85 percent, of all schools in Gaza had been hit by Israeli attacks.
Breakdown of deaths by age and gender (analysis by professors Michael Spagat and Daniel Silverman), November 2023
Israel's motivations for attacking civilian structures in Gaza remains disputed. Israel states it is attacking them as military targets, while critics accuse Israeli soldiers of deliberately targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure in revenge for the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel.
During the Israel–Hamas war, the IDF stated it had evidence of Hamas rockets launched next to schools. It also accused Hamas of using schools as "command and control centers". Although Israel claims it is targeting Hamas, rescue teams digging through the rubble of destroyed schools reported that they have found most of the dead to be women and children. Hamas denies that's it's using schools for military purposes.
In another video, IDF soldiers cheer as they blow up blue colored UNRWA schools. IDF soldiers have also posted videos of themselves destroying or vandalizing Gaza schools. In one video, IDF soldiers set a library on fire.
Many, including over 1,600 academics, and news channels have said that Israel is targeting educational facilities and committing scholasticide in Gaza. Sean Carroll, the CEO of the American Near East Refugee Aid, stated scholasticide was an accurate term and described the "targeting" of schools.
On 17 October 2023, an airstrike conducted by the IDF struck a United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) school in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. The UNRWA reported six people were killed by the airstrike and dozens more were injured, including UNRWA staff. The organization also claims that at least 4,000 people had taken refuge in the school since the start of the Israel–Hamas war.
At least five people were killed in an airstrike on the Maghazi Secondary Girls School on 27 December.
Osama bin Zaid School
On 3 November 2023, an air strike by the Israel Defense Forces bombed Osama bin Zaid School in the Al-Saftawi area, located in the northern Gaza Strip, a school belonging to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). 20 people were killed in the airstrike and dozens of other civilians were injured, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. The Ministry of Health and UNRWA said that at least 1,000 people have taken refuge in school since the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas.
On 4 November, a UNRWA spokeswoman confirmed reports that Israel had conducted another airstrike against a UN-run school in the Jabalia refugee camp. According to the Gaza health ministry, the attack on the Al-Fakhoora school killed fifteen and wounded dozens more. Reuters reported having obtained a video of a boy crying in despair: "I was standing here when three bombings happened, I carried a body and another decapitated body with my own hands. God will take my vengeance." According to UNRWA, at least one strike hit the schoolyard, where displaced families had set up their tents. In response to the strike, Al Jazeera remarked Israel was "trying to eliminate all sources of survival for the civilian population to force the evacuation to the southern part of Gaza."
A second airstrike on the school occurred in the early hours of the morning on 18 November. Journalists on the scene reported dead bodies everywhere, suggesting the strike may have been an Israeli message to civilians to flee to the southern Gaza Strip. The second strike killed at least 50 people. A video clip surfacing following what has been described as a "massacre" depicts a man walking through several rooms where dozens of corpses can be seen, and distress can be heard throughout the school.
Al-Buraq School
On 9 November 2023, an Israeli airstrike bombed Al-Buraq School on Lababidi Street in the Al-Nasr neighbourhood, north of Gaza City, which was being used by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNRWA) as a shelter. The people took shelter in the school were ones that their homes were destroyed. At least 50 people were killed in the attack, with multiple injuries reported. The Israeli missile fell on the school in the morning when thousands of people were sheltering inside it. The attack led to the death of at least 50 people and injuries. Among the dead were also children. The Palestinian Ministry of Health said that dozens of others were injured. The IDF claimed that Ahmed Siam, a Hamas commander who they alleged “held hostage approximately 1,000 Gazan residents at Rantisi Hospital," was killed in the strike along with other Hamas operatives.
Al-Falah School
On 17 November 2023, an Israeli airstrike bombed Al-Falah School in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood of the city, which was being used by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNRWA) as a shelter. At least 20 people were killed in the attack, with multiple injuries reported. The Israeli missile fell on Al-Falah School in the morning, when thousands of people were sheltering in it. Due to the communications blackout in the Gaza Strip at the time, rescue teams were not aware of the strike on the school until the following day.
On 23 November 2023, an Israeli airstrike bombed the Abu Hussein School in Jabalia camp, which was being used by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNRWA) as a shelter. At least 27 people were killed in the attack, with multiple injuries reported. The Israeli missile fell on Abu Hussein School in the morning when thousands of people were sheltering inside of it. The attack led to the death of at least 27 people and injuries. Among the dead were also children. The Palestinian Ministry of Health reported that about 100 other people were injured in the attack. The Abu Hussein School was again bombed in October 2024, reportedly killing at least 28 people, including multiple children.
An-Nazla School
The An-Nazla elementary school in northern Gaza was bombed while hundreds of refugees sheltered there. At least ten people were killed, including children. On 25 May 2024, a woman whose daughter was injured in the attack, stated, "The children were playing in the schoolyard, and suddenly we were bombed. We lived something unnatural."
On 6 June 2024, at approximately 2 am, Israeli forces targeted the classrooms on the highest floor of the Al-Sardi school in the Nuseirat refugee camp with two missiles in an airstrike. The strike was carried after the army declared new ground assaults and airstrikes on several refugee camps in central Gaza. The munition used in the attack was of the same variety employed in the Tel al-Sultan attack, namely a GBU-39.
Haifa School
On 15 December 2023, an Israeli airstrike struck the Haifa School in the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, which was being used by the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNRWA) as a shelter. At least 20 people were killed in the attack, with multiple injuries reported. The aerial bombardment resulted in the death of Al Jazeera photographer Samer Abu Daqqa, and the injury of Wael Al-Dahdouh, director of Al Jazeera in Gaza.
Israa University
Israa University in Al-Zahra, south of Gaza City, was destroyed by the Israeli military in January 2024. UNOCHA reported that the IDF had been using the campus as an "an ad hoc detention facility for interrogating Palestinian detainees before their transfer to an unknown location". Birzeit University accused the IDF of stealing 3,000 rare artifacts before destroying the university.
On 9 July 2024, the Israeli Defense Forces bombed Al-Awda school in Abasan al-Kabira near the city of Khan Yunis, in the Gaza Strip, Palestine. The UNRWA-ran that had been converted into a displacement shelter, hosting refugees from the Israeli invasion. At least 31 Palestinians were killed in the attack while over 53 were injured; most of the casualties were women and children. Many of the victims were refugees from Rafah following Israel's Rafah offensive. The attack was the fourth attack on a Palestinian school conducted by the Israel Defense Forces over the prior four days.
On 4 August 2024, the Israel Defense Forces bombed Hamama School in the Gaza neighborhood of Sheikh Radwan. The school had been sheltering people displaced by the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, including women and children. Per Gaza's Civil Defense, 17 people were killed and "many others" were wounded, while the school itself was "completely destroyed". The attack was one of a number of attacks on schools during the Israeli invasion of Gaza. The Israeli army stated that the school was being used by Hamas. Hamas criticized this claim as a false pretext "for targeting defenseless civilians". The Palestinian Resistance Movement called the attack a continuation of Israel's "brutal war of extermination" in Gaza.
On 10 August 2024, Israel struck the Al-Tabaeen school located in eastern Gaza City, which was hosting displaced Palestinians seeking shelter there during the Israel–Hamas war. At least 80 Palestinians were killed and 47 others were injured, with several victims being trapped in the school as the fire spread, according to Palestinian health authorities.
At around 4:40 during Fajr morning prayers in the Al-Tabaeen school, which was being used to house roughly 6,000 refugees and internally displaced Palestinian citizens, three rockets struck the building, causing the structure to collapse. Consequently, a fire broke out that caused several more casualties. Attempts by rescue workers and other civilians to reduce the spread of the fire and save the lives of trapped civilians were seriously impeded due to the Israeli military cutting off the region's water supply.
It was the fifth attack on a school in a week and the UN Human Rights Office said it was "horrified by the unfolding pattern" of attacks on schools. An Al Jazeera investigation found that the bombing was deliberately performed to result in maximum casualties. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) claimed that the school "contained 31 Hamas and PIJterrorists" and was being used as a "Hamas headquarters". Additionally they stated that they had taken steps to prevent harm to civilians. Analysing the IDF's official explanations, the Israeli investigative journalist Meron Rapoport concluded that "the army bombed a populated shelter knowing full well the deadly repercussions its assault would inflict." A CNN weapons expert identified shrapnel evident in footage from the aftermath of the attack as coming from a GBU-39 manufactured by the US-based Boeing.
On 11 September 2024, the Israel Defense Forces bombed the UN-run Al-Jawni school in the Nuseirat refugee camp of central Gaza. The school had been sheltering people displaced by the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, including women and children. Per rescuers, 18 people were killed and more than 44 others were wounded. Among the killed were six United Nations workers, including the manager of the UNRWA shelter. This made it the highest death toll for UN staff in any single incident of the Israel–Hamas War and raising the number of UNRWA staff killed since the beginning of the war to 220. The attack was one of a number of attacks on schools during the Israeli invasion of Gaza and the fifth bombing of the Al-Jawni School since October 2023.
In July 2024, Israeli airstrikes hit a number of schools, leading the UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma to state attacks on schools had become "almost a daily occurrence". On 7 July 2024, an Israeli attack on the Al-Jaouni school killed at least 16 Palestinians and injured 50, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The Al-Jawni school was hit by an Israeli strike that killed 16 people, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. The following day, the Holy Family school in Gaza City was hit by a strike, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem stated the school was "a place of refuge for hundreds of civilians". On 14 July 2024, an Israeli strike on the Abu Oraiban School killed 22 people and wounded 100, per the Gaza Health Ministry. On 16 July 2024, an Israeli airstrike on the al-Razi school in the Nuseirat refugee camp reportedly killed at least 42 people, becoming the sixth UN school to be bombed in a ten day period. On 17 July 2024, UNRWA spokesperson Juliette Touma stated eight schools had been hit in the prior two weeks. On 27 July, at least 30 people were killed by an Israeli airstrike on a Deir al-Balah school.
In August 2024, UNOCHA stated that Israeli attacks against schools appeared to be "occurring with increasing frequency." Early in the month, Israeli airstrikes on the al-Nasr, Hassan Salama, and Dalal al-Mughrabi schools resulted in dozens of casualties. According to UNOCHA, the schools were sheltering thousands of internally displaced people. On 4 August 2024, an Israeli airstrike on the Hassan Salame school killed at least 30 people, according to the Palestinian emergency response agency. The school was functioning as a shelter for displaced people. On 20 August 2024, the Gaza Civil Defence authority stated that an Israeli airstrike had killed at least 12 people at the Mustafa Hafez school. The following day, the Civil Defence stated at least an Israeli airstrike killed at least four people in the Salah al-Din School.
In September 2024, an Israeli airstrike killed at least 24 people and wounded 30 on the Zeitoun School in Gaza City. The Jordanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the strike in the "strongest terms". Later that same month, an Israeli attack on the Hafsa al-Faluja School killed at least fifteen people. 28 people were killed in October 2024 by an Israeli bombing of the Rufaida school. Seven people were reportedly killed by an Israeli bombing of the Zayd ibn Haritha school. On 19 October 2024, an Israeli airstrike killed at least 73 people at the Asmaa School in Gaza's Al-Shati refugee camp in Beit Lahia, according to Gaza’s Civil Defense. On 24 October 2024, an Israeli airstrike killed at least 17 people at the Al-Shuhada school, according to hospital officials.
According to the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs, around 500,000 Palestinian children in Gaza are unable to resume their schooling routine due to the ongoing conflict. The war has led to the destruction of 174 schools in Gaza, with 26 public schools and 1 UNRWA school being completely demolished and unable to open for the 2014/2015 academic year. Furthermore, 30 other schools remain closed as they are still being occupied by a large number of displaced individuals. 447 children who lost their lives in the Israeli military attacks will never have the chance to go back to school. The Palestinian Ministry of Education has issued a list of public schools in Gaza that were either severely damaged or destroyed, including the following ones:
Hani Na’eem School of Agriculture,
Abu Tammam's Basic School,
Hayel Abdel Hameed School,
Mahdeya el Shawa School,
Subhi Abu Karsh School,
The Shujayea Martyrs School,
Beit Dajan School,
Ali Bin Abi Talib School,
Shujayea Basic School,
Abbas Secondary School,
Jamal Abd el Nasser School,
Moaz Bin Jabal School,
Mahatet Miyah el Karamah School,
Caesarea School,
Sukina Bin Hussein School,
Khawla Bint el Azur School,
Rudolph Filter School,
Ibn Zaidun School,
El Bareej School,
Fathi el Balawi School,
Maari School for Girls,
Maari School for Boys,
Ibn el Nafis School,
Absan New School,
Ghassan Kanafani School for Girls,
Ghassan Kanafani School for Boys.
Etc.
Impacts
The Gaza Education Ministry stated that 4,037 students and 209 educational staff were killed, 7,259 students and 619 teachers were wounded, and 352 schools were damaged between 7 October and 26 December. On 16 January, the Education Ministry reported 4,368 students had been killed and 388 schools damaged since 7 October. Human rights groups reported 94 professors had been killed. By 4 February 2024, Gaza's Ministry of Education stated 4,800 students had been killed. In March 2024, the Ministry of Education and the UN stated that 5,479 students had been killed thus far. By the end of March, the Ministry of Education stated the total had risen to 5,881 students. As a result of the destruction of schools in Gaza, the education of 600,000 children has been cut short. Some students were enrolled in online school.
In late December 2023, the UN stated 90 percent of school buildings in Gaza were being used for shelter. The UN further reported that 75 percent of Gaza's educational infrastructure had been damaged. On 11 February 2024, a representative with the Gaza Education Ministry stated, "All higher education institutions in the Gaza Strip were damaged, either completely or partially". In late-April 2024, UNOCHA estimated that 65 percent of schools used to shelter displaced people had been "directly hit or damaged". In May 2024, the Government Media Office stated more than 100 academics in Gaza had been killed by Israel. In June 2024, some 39,000 high students were unable to take their secondary school final exams.
A report by researchers at the University of Cambridge, the Centre for Lebanese Studies, and UNRWA stated that Israel's attacks had set back Palestinian children's education five years and risked creating a "lost generation".
As a result of the Israel–Hamas war, children have been disproportionately impacted in the Gaza Strip, where 40% of the population is 14 or under. On 13 November, UNICEF reported that more than 700,000 children in Gaza were displaced. A dire humanitarian crisis, with reports of children suffering from a serious epidemic of gastroenteritis due to the lack of clean water, led to concerns amongst health officials and aid organizations. Speaking to reporters early in the conflict, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned that "Gaza is becoming a graveyard for children. Hundreds of girls and boys are reportedly being killed or injured every day."
Save the Children, UNICEF, and Palestinian health officials described children being left with permanent disabilities, mental health issues, and amputations, with thousands experiencing dehydration, malnutrition, respiratory, and skin diseases. By late-March 2024, an estimated 13,000 children in Gaza had been killed, with thousands more buried under rubble. The UNICEF deputy director called the conditions of children in Gaza the "most horrific" he had ever seen. The ongoing crisis also impacted routine vaccinations, leaving thousands of children at risk, and further compounded challenges included inadequate shelter, a lack of adequate winter coats, and the psychological toll on children's mental health.
The suspension of the 2023-2024 school year because of the ongoing war has left over 625,000 pupils and also 22,500 teachers in Gaza out of school. In April 2024, the Palestinian Ministry of Education stated that 5,994 students in Gaza had been killed since 7 October. UNICEF reported that 80% of schools in Gaza are either damaged or destroyed, leaving students without access to education. The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) stated that around 1,000 children in Gaza have suffered the loss of one or both legs. Additionally, the United Nations revealed that over 50,000 children in Gaza are facing severe malnutrition.
Reactions
In Palestine
A master's student at the Islamic University of Gaza stated, "We're talking about not only the structure of the university being destroyed, but also the future of all the students. People who had started studying a master's, material degree, or even a PhD. We don't know how we will continue."
Al Jazeera correspondent Hind Khoudary stated, "Schools in the Gaza Strip are not only schools, they are shelters and graveyards." In May 2024, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa shared an image of an Israeli soldier burning books at Al-Aqsa University, stating, "Israel has targeted all universities in the Strip, with some being completely destroyed". In a New York Times editorial, Mosab Abu Toha wrote, "How can a teacher — me or anyone else — return to teach children and pretend these same places have not been zones of death and suffering?"
International
Academics and activists
The neologism "scholasticide", also used in 2009 to describe "the systematic destruction by Israeli forces of centers of education dear to Palestinian society", saw a reemergence amid the hostilities in 2023 and early 2024. Professor Chandni Desai of the University of Toronto stated "Scholasticide isn't genocide on its own, but what one could argue that it is part of the genocidal war."
Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai discussed a spate of school bombings in July 2024, stating, "It is horrifying how many schools have been bombed in Gaza".
In a September 2024 social media post, Yousafzai wrote, "I am appalled that Israel keeps targeting schools in Gaza — where thousands of displaced people are sheltering — with indiscriminate strikes."
Humanitarian organizations
In June 2024, the director of the Al Fakhoura Programme in Qatar criticized the airstrikes, stating, "Targeting critical educational infrastructure dismantles hope for many Palestinians in Gaza where education is an important and critical tool for survivability and equality".
UNRWA criticized Israel's airstrikes of schools, stating, "This blatant disregard of humanitarian law must stop". In July 2024, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini addressed an Israeli airstrike on a UN school, stating, "Another day. Another month. Another school hit".
In August 2024, a UNICEF communications officer discussed Israel's attacks on schools and other civilian infrastructure, stating, "Those schools are not schools anymore. They are very basic shelters for so many families, and we have unfortunately seen in the last 10 months so many of those attacks on schools, on hospitals, on civilian infrastructure that children and families rely on, which makes life even more miserable."
Ramy Abdu, head of the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, described the Israeli killing of Palestinian political analyst Ayman Rafati as part of the scholasticide in Gaza. Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has strongly condemned Israel's escalated assaults on UNRWA-operated schools sheltering displaced individuals in different parts of the Gaza Strip. The team at Euro-Med Monitor has documented substantial Israeli air and artillery attacks on no less than five UNRWA-operated schools within the last day. These offensives have led to multiple casualties and signify a grave violation of the legal safeguards that should safeguard UN facilities.
^ Davies, Wyre (19 January 2024). "Gaza destruction risks lost generation of children, says UN official". Archived from the original on 18 July 2024. Retrieved 10 August 2024. Such incidents have led to accusations of "collective punishment" - that Israel is methodically and deliberately destroying institutions including schools in retaliation for what happened when armed Hamas gunmen stormed over the Gaza fence on 7 October.
^"How Israel has destroyed Gaza's schools and universities". Al Jazeera. 24 January 2024. Retrieved 11 June 2024. All schools in Gaza have been shut and no university has survived more than 100 days of onslaught by the Israeli military.
^Desai, Chadni (8 June 2024). "Israel has destroyed or damaged 80% of schools in Gaza. This is scholasticide". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 June 2024. Through the physical destruction of educational and cultural infrastructure, scholasticide obliterates the means through which a group, in this instance Palestinians, can sustain and transmit their culture, knowledge, history, memory, identity and values across time and space. It is a key feature of genocide. The custodians of that knowledge are being killed.
^Mccready, Alastair (10 August 2024). "Israel-Palestine conflict | Live updates". Al Jazeera. Archived from the original on 10 August 2024. Retrieved 10 August 2024. Israel claims, without offering any evidence, that the school was being used as a compound by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It says intelligence showed 20 fighters were based there.
^"UN experts deeply concerned over 'scholasticide' in Gaza". ohchr.org. 18 April 2024. Retrieved 11 June 2024. After six months of military assault, more than 5,479 students, 261 teachers and 95 university professors have been killed in Gaza, and over 7,819 students and 756 teachers have been injured – with numbers growing each day. At least 60 per cent of educational facilities, including 13 public libraries, have been damaged or destroyed and at least 625,000 students have no access to education.
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