In just the first 100 days of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israel bombed every university inside Gaza Strip. Within the first six months, it had destroyed or damaged 85 percent of its schools and now almost no school in Gaza remains undamaged.
To destroy a nation, eliminate its intellectuals. This is precisely what Israel is doing in Gaza. By deliberately targeting elite figures, Israel aims to destabilize social and moral structures, weaken the Palestinian front, and cripple any hope of recovery.
Oxford professor Karma Nabulsi defines scholasticide as the deliberate destruction of educational institutions. It includes any form of persecution, imprisonment, or killing of educators, students, and other academic personnel. Scholasticide goes hand in hand with eliticide — a “systematic decapitation” of a nation’s intellectual and leadership class.
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While some claim that the damage to school buildings in Gaza is merely a byproduct of widespread infrastructure destruction, figures suggest otherwise. As per an assessment conducted by the Education Cluster, as of July 6, 85 percent (477 out of 564) of the school buildings in Gaza had been affected by the Israeli aggression in the strip. Of the 477 school buildings, 344 had been directly targeted, while 133 sustained various levels of damage.
Since Nov 7, there has been a sharp rise in deliberate bombardment of schools used as internal displacement shelters in the Strip. Gaza has long been systematically devastated by a continuous Israeli-imposed air, water and land blockade. During wars and escalations, civilians seek refuge in schools, especially United Nations-run schools, as the UN is responsible for the safety of 1,276,929 refugees, counted in early August, living in Gaza. Some UN schools have been equipped since 2017 to serve as emergency shelters, with enhanced power, sanitation and generator facilities, in addition to their primary role as educational spaces.
Gaza is a narrow 360 square kilometers enclave where civilians have no access to bunkers or official shelters to protect them. Schools, whether government or UN-run, are the only shelter most civilians have, but these facilities have become targets in this war, despite their protected status.
Besides, Israel has bombed all 12 universities and wiped out 195 libraries, heritage sites and archives, including the Central Archives of Gaza, which housed 150 years of history. This deliberate destruction severs Gaza’s connection to its past and strikes at the heart of its cultural identity.
The ongoing assaults on schools and universities have stripped 625,000 school-aged children and 90,000 university students of their right to education, jeopardizing the future of an entire generation. By April 2, the Palestinian Ministry of Education reported that over 5,479 students and 261 teachers in Gaza had been killed in Israeli attacks since October 7, with an additional 7,819 students and 756 teachers injured in the continued aggression. These different forms of aggression fit within the definition of scholasticide.
Ghada Amra, a 26-year-old teacher at the severely damaged UN Al-Bahrain School, said she has “stopped counting” the number of fellow educators killed during Israel’s assault on Gaza. Among those she mourns are her colleagues Tasneem Mhana, a 32-year-old teacher killed along with her four children, and Hala Khattab, a 38-year-old teacher who was killed with her six children. Ghada also lost her university professors, including Yahya Ghban, a PhD in Arabic Literature and lecturer at Al-Aqsa University, and Bassam Shaheen, a PhD in nursing and deputy dean of intermediate studies at Al-Azhar University.
The mass destruction continues.
The recent attack on Al-Taba’een School, in which 2,400 people approximately sought refuge, is a harrowing example of Israel’s scholasticide. This strike claimed over 100 lives, with many victims so badly mutilated that their remains could only be returned to their families in small pieces, like meat by the kilogram.
Israel justified the attack by claiming that Hamas members were present in the school, yet offers no evidence — no names, no photos — of the alleged targets. The families of those killed in the strike vehemently deny any Hamas affiliation, insisting that their loved ones were “just civilians”. Among those killed — whom Israel has falsely labeled as fighters — were an Arabic professor, a hospital employee and a retired principal.
UN experts have denounced the “systemic obliteration” of the education system in Gaza. They note that such attacks are not isolated incidents, presenting a systematic pattern of violence aimed at dismantling the very foundation of Palestinian society.
Between Oct 7, 2023, and Jan 20, 2024, Israel killed 94 academics, including 17 professors, 59 PhD holders, and 18 with master’s degrees, according to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor. The organization reported that these killings occurred “in deliberate and specific air raids on their homes without prior notice”.
Among those targeted was Refaat Alareer, co-founder of We Are Not Numbers project, who was assassinated with his family in Shuja’iyya. According to the Euro-Med, Alareer “received an anonymous phone call from someone who identified himself as an Israeli officer and threatened Refaat that they knew precisely the school where he was located and were about to get to his location with the advancement of Israeli ground troops”.
Sufian Tayeh, recognized among the top 2 percent of researchers worldwide, was also killed along with his family. Khitam Elwasife, a prolific researcher in electromagnetism and electronic optics and Head of the Physics Department at the Islamic University of Gaza, was another victim.
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Besides academics and community leaders, Israel had targeted 500 health workers, including the plastic surgeon Medhat Saidam, who was killed in an airstrike on his sister’s house.
Israel also detained 100 medical workers, including Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of Al-Shifa Medical Complex; Ahmed Al-Kahlout, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital; and Ahmed Mahna, director of Al-Awda Hospital.
UN experts were horrified over the detention of medical staff, including Adnan Al Bursh, who died under mysterious circumstances in Israel’s Ofer prison. The UN has called for an independent international investigation into his death.
The systematic destruction of Gaza’s educational infrastructure and the targeted assassinations amount to deliberate strategies aimed at erasing the future of an entire people. The message to the remaining elites is clear: there is no future for them in Gaza.
The author is Director of Operations at Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor’s project We Are Not Numbers.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
