Background
Before Israel launched its genocidal campaign in 2023, the Gaza Strip contained 796 schools and 12 higher education institutions, as well as numerous libraries, archives, bookstores, museums, and publishing houses. Gaza boasted one of the lowest illiteracy rates in the world (1.8%), and more than one-third of its population consisted of school and university students. Since October 2023, Israel has targeted Gaza’s education sector and cultural institutions in a systematic fashion, building on the scholasticidal precedents it had set during its 2008 and 2014 assaults on the besieged enclave.
October 2023
October 9 – The Israeli military commences its assault on Gaza’s education sector by leveling the Islamic University of Gaza’s library.
October 10 – The Israeli military bombs the iconic Samir Mansour Bookshop and Library, which it had previously reduced to rubble during its 2021 assault on Gaza.
October 11 – Israel extensively bombs the Gaza campus of the Islamic University of Gaza, destroying its mosque and most of its main buildings. It additionally begins its attacks on Al-Azhar University.
Mid-October – Israeli air strikes on Al Nuseirat refugee camp kill Al-Shaima Akram Saidam, the top student in Palestine’s high school examination in 2023, as well as members of her family.
October 18 – It is reported that Al-Qarara Museum, also known as the Khan Younis Museum, has been destroyed by Israeli bombing. Established in 2016, the museum featured approximately 3,000 artifacts reaching back to the Canaanite period.
October 19 – The University College of Applied Sciences is bombed by Israeli forces. On the same day, the fifth-century Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius and the neighboring Katib al-Wilaya Mosque are damaged by Israeli bombardment.
October 23 – Israeli forces arrest Imad Barghouti, a prominent astrophysicist and professor of physics at Al-Quds University in the West Bank, for unspecified reasons. After abducting Barghouti under threat of home demolition, Israel imprisoned him without charge or trial.
November 2023
Early November – Al-Aqsa University is damaged by Israeli bombing. Videos circulate on social media showing Israeli forces additionally bombing Al-Azhar University, with media sources reporting that its campus has been wholly or partly destroyed.
November 8 – Israeli soldiers raid Birzeit University in the West Bank, shooting and severely wounding a young Palestinian man in the process.
November 15 – The Gaza branch building of Al-Quds Open University is destroyed by Israeli bombing. Days later, the university issues a statement condemning Israel’s “relentless” attacks on the building as well as its previous use of it as a military barracks.
November 25 – The Diana Tamari Sabbagh Library, home to tens of thousands of books, is demolished by Israeli shelling while serving as a shelter for displaced Palestinians.
November 29 – Local authorities report that Israel has destroyed Gaza City’s Central Archives, containing thousands of historical documents spanning more than 150 years.
November 30 – 15 Palestinian higher education institutions from Gaza and the West Bank publish “A Unified Call for Justice and Freedom in Palestine.” The letter urges academic institutions around the world to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, to advocate for the immediate entry of humanitarian aid, to issue clear positions against ethnic cleansing, and to support Palestinians in dismantling Israeli settler-colonialism and apartheid. The statement additionally emphasizes the complicity of Israeli universities in the Israeli state’s crimes and the necessity of subjecting these universities to global isolation.
December 2023
December 4 – Gaza University is bombed and appears to have been completely destroyed.
December 6 – Six scholarly institutions in Gaza City are reported to have been destroyed, including Enaim Library, Kana’an Educational Development Institute and its community library, Lubbud Library, Al-Nahda Library, Al-Shorouq Al-Daem Library, Al-Quds Open University Library.
December 7 – The Othman bin Qashar Mosque in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood is destroyed by Israeli airstrikes.
December 8 – The 7th-century Omari Mosque is destroyed. The mosque’s library is destroyed as well, which housed one of Palestine’s most significant collections of rare books, some dating to before the 14th century.
Mid-December – UNICEF reports that 352 of Gaza’s school buildings have been damaged, that more than 70% of Gaza’s education infrastructure has been adversely affected by Israel’s campaign, and that at least 209 teachers have been killed. A UNICEF spokesperson tells The Guardian that “There is absolutely no form of education or schooling in the Gaza Strip at the moment.”
December 18 – Scholars at Risk (SAR) issues a call to action regarding the impact of Israel’s campaign on academia in Gaza, Israel, and the West Bank. Among other things, the statement notes that education at all levels has been halted in Gaza, while higher education in the West Bank has been moved online following increased Israeli violence and travel restrictions.
Late December – An Israeli airstrike hits Al-Aqsa University, killing 20 Palestinians who had been sheltering inside it.
January 2024
January 14 – Al Jazeera reports that Israeli forces damaged the Monastery of Saint Hilarion, a 4th-century site that would later be added to UNESCO’s List of World Heritage in Danger.
January 15 – Israeli soldiers raid Al-Najah National University in the West Bank, arresting 25 students who had been participating in a sit-in.
January 16 – Israeli soldiers arrest 45 students at Birzeit University in the West Bank, raising the total number of arrested Birzeit students to more than 125.
January 17 – Video footage emerges of Israeli forces detonating 315 mines to destroy the remaining buildings of Al-Israa University, Gaza’s last standing university. Israeli soldiers had previously occupied the university and used it as a military base for 70 days. Al-Israa had been home to Gaza’s first national museum, containing over 3,000 artifacts, which Israeli forces looted before the demolition.
January 20 – Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reports that 94 university professors in Gaza have been killed and that every university in Gaza has been at least partially destroyed.
January 25 – Middle East Eye publishes footage showing severe damage to the Khan Yunis campus of Al-Aqsa University. Eyewitnesses report that Israeli tanks had stormed the campus and encouraged looting.
Late January – By the end of January, Israel’s offensive has caused $341 million in damage to Gaza’s education infrastructure, including schools and university buildings.
February 2024
Early February – Israeli forces destroy two Al-Aqsa University buildings in Gaza City.
Mid-February – By February 20, Israeli forces have killed more than than 5,200 students and injured at least 8,700 more, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Education.
February 29 – Al Jazeera reports that Doaa Qudaih, a Palestinian teacher, has started an initiative to teach children English in tents.
March 2024
March 27 – The Palestinian Ministry of Education reports that Israel has killed nearly 6,000 school students and wounded 10,000 others in Gaza, in addition to killing 55 students and wounding 329 more in the West Bank. Its statement also notes that 286 government schools and 65 UNRWA schools in Gaza have been bombed or vandalized, leaving 40 schools completely destroyed.
April 2024
April 2 – Researchers from Harvard University and other institutions publish a study revealing that “more than half of healthcare, education, and water facilities” were damaged by Israeli attacks between October 7 and November 22, 2023. The study’s lead author notes that these facilities “were not damaged in a random pattern, but rather that damage was highly clustered on these facilities.”
April 18 – A group of UN experts issue a statement voicing explicit concern regarding Israel’s “scholasticide” in Gaza. The statement notes that more than 80% of Gaza’s schools have been destroyed or damaged, along with at least 60% of its educational facilities. “It may be reasonable to ask,” the authors write, “if there is an intentional effort to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system.”
April 18 – Israeli police arrest, detain, and abuse Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, a Palestinian professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, for comments she had made on a podcast more than a month earlier.
May 2024
Early May – By May 2, more than 1,600 international academics have signed a petition denouncing Israel’s scholasticide in Gaza. By May 3, 88% of Gaza’s school buildings have sustained some level of damage, with 54% of them suffering direct hits.
May 6 – Adalah reports that over 160 Palestinian students in Israeli universities have faced disciplinary action since October 7, 2023, frequently for social media posts.
May 6 – Al-Mayadeen reports that Tamer Abu Moussa, a graduate student at Gaza’s destroyed Al-Azhar University, has successfully defended his master’s thesis remotely while sheltering in a tent.
May 16 – Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor publishes a report entitled “Israeli army’s destruction of more schools, health centres in Gaza is additional manifestation of genocide.”
Mid-May – A video circulates of an Israeli soldier filming the ruins of Al-Azhar University and celebrating its destruction. He says the following as he films: “We are at a university in Gaza. If you want to sign up, if you want to learn, I think they’re closed for construction. Yes, they’re closed for construction. How beautiful. Another angle of the ruins. … [Do] you want to sign up? We’re starting a new semester. It’ll start never.”
Late May – A photo circulates of Israeli soldiers posing in front of a Palestinian library that has been set ablaze. Footage also emerges of Israeli soldiers burning books in Rafah, including the Qur’an.
May 29 – A group of Palestinian academics and staff at Gaza’s universities publish an open letter calling on “friends and colleagues around the world to resist the ongoing campaign of scholasticide in occupied Palestine, to work alongside us in rebuilding our demolished universities, and to refuse all plans seeking to bypass, erase, or weaken the integrity of our academic institutions.”
June 2024
June 10 – UNESCO verifies that at least 50 cultural sites in Gaza have been damaged since October 7, including 11 religious sites, 28 buildings of historical and/or artistic interest, 2 depositories of movable cultural property, 4 monuments, 1 museum and 4 archeological sites.
Mid-June – A UN commission issues a report that condemns numerous instances in which “large scale air strikes and the demolition of buildings by the [Israeli Security Forces] caused the destruction of civilian objects,” including “schools and universities,” without military necessity or defined military objectives.
June 20 – The Palestinian Ministry of Education announces that Israeli military actions have barred approximately 39,000 high school students in Gaza from taking their Tawjihi final exams. It additionally notes that 450 Palestinian high school students have been killed in the past year, 430 of them in Gaza.
June 21 – UNRWA reports that over 76% of schools in Gaza would need reconstructing or require major rehabilitation to be functional again.
July 2024
Early July – The Palestinian Ministry of Education reports that Israel has killed at least 8,572 Palestinian students in Gaza and 100 in the West Bank. The Ministry notes that at least 497 teachers and administrators have been killed as well, along with another 3,402 wounded. UNICEF data would subsequently reveal that 344 school buildings in Gaza had been directly hit by Israeli strikes by July 6.
July 18 – Sadiq al-Khadour, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Ministry of Education, observes in a remote interview that “”Israel has targeted everyone and everything involved in the educational process in Gaza. … We’re not only talking about targeting the people and stones that form and build the educational system, but also targeting everything that facilitates it, including the telecommunication network, electricity and water system.”
July 26 – +972 reports that “despite the damage [wrought by Israel’s campaign], there are still efforts among Palestinians in Gaza to continue teaching and learning,” particularly via remote educational initiatives by Al-Azhar University and Al-Aqsa University.
Late July – By July 27, 564 school buildings have been either directly hit or damaged by Israeli attacks, comprising nearly 85% of all school buildings in Gaza. The majority of these buildings have been hit directly.
July 30 – Middle East Eye reports that the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius has been attacked by Israeli forces for the second time.
August 2024
August 6 – The Palestinian Ministry of Education reports that Israeli forces have killed over 9,936 of Gaza’s students, wounded nearly 16,000 others, and prevented 620,000 more from attending school – in addition to killing 107 students and injuring 526 others in the West Bank since October 7, 2023. The Ministry also notes that more than 500 teachers, lecturers, professors, and educational staff have been killed within this timeframe.
August 21 – The Electronic Intifada reports that at least 121 schools in Gaza have been fully destroyed, with 333 others having been severely damaged.
August 25 – Al Jazeera publishes video recordings of Israeli soldiers burning and tearing pages out of the Qur’an in Gaza’s Bani Saleh Mosque, as well as drone footage of Israeli forces bombing and destroying the Grand Mosque in Khan Younis.
August 29 – The Electronic Intifada publishes a testimonial by Huda Skaik, an English student at Gaza’s Islamic University, in which she reflects on the ways that she and her peers are continuing to pursue their education remotely amid Israel’s campaign of destruction.
September 2024
Early September – As of September, at least 69 cultural heritage sites have been damaged in Gaza, including museums, monuments, and religious sites.
September 9 – UNRWA publishes a report entitled “Education Under Attack: Restoring Learning for Children in Gaza.” Among other things, the report notes that 85% of Gaza’s school buildings have been hit or damaged since the start of Israel’s onslaught and that more than 625,000 students have “lost a year of education and learning” in the process.
October 2024
Early October – By early October, Israeli attacks have destroyed 79% of Gaza’s mosques (814 out of 1,245) and all three of Gaza’s churches.
November 2024
November 4 – Israel notifies the UN of its decision to end ties with UNRWA, banning its operations in Israeli territory and adversely impacting the agency’s educational services.
November 13 – UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini warns that new Israeli legislation could deny education to over 660,000 Palestinian children in Gaza.
November 15 – Reports indicate that 95% of Gaza’s schools have been damaged or destroyed during Israel’s campaign, disrupting education for approximately 660,000 children.
January 2025
January 18 – The Guardian publishes visual data revealing that at least 90% of Gaza’s educational infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed.
January 19 – A ceasefire allows essential humanitarian aid, including educational supplies, to enter Gaza.