The Jewish state has conducted industrial-scale slaughter of students and teachers in a bid to annihilate the educational infrastructure in the Gaza Strip
DESPITE the supposed ceasefire that came into effect in October last year, the continuing Israeli bombardments, ongoing siege, and prohibition on the entry of basic goods into the Gaza Strip have made it nearly impossible for over 780,000 students to continue their education in the besieged enclave.
Moreover, the Israelis have deliberately enacted “systematic and deliberate policies aimed at preventing the population from restoring education,” Euro-Med Monitor reported recently.
These policies include the ongoing blockade, the targeting of civilian objects, including educational facilities, through bombing and destruction, the prevention of reconstruction, and the obstruction of the entry of materials, equipment, and operational resources needed to rehabilitate and run schools and universities. As a result, hundreds of thousands of students remain cut off from formal education.
The current reality reflects a systematic Israeli pattern aimed at destroying the education system in the Gaza Strip by targeting civilians, including students, teachers, and academics, and by attacking civilian objects such as schools and universities, rendering them inoperable. This entrenches scholasticide within a broader policy of destroying the foundations of life in the enclave and stripping society of its ability to survive and recover, while advancing forced displacement and the coercive reshaping of the demographic and social reality.
With reconstruction still a distant dream, children are forced to continue their education in what remains of destroyed schools and through learning programmes run by community initiatives.
But there remains a constant risk.
“Most operate in tents that fail to meet minimum safety, protection, or educational standards and function under constant instability and danger,” the report revealed.
This methodically engineered, desperate situation has imperilled the education of more than 7,80,000 pupils for a third consecutive year in the Gaza Strip. It will have serious consequences for their future. “This prolonged disruption deepens learning gaps, disrupts students’ academic path, and undermines their chances of completing higher education and entering the labour market,” the report said.
The wholesale slaughter of Palestinians since October 7 has been especially brutal on children, with tens of thousands killed — at least 20,000 by October 2025, according to a very conservative count maintained by the Gaza Health Ministry — and more than 39,000 orphaned by April last year.
The Israelis have conducted industrial-scale slaughter of students and teachers in a bid to annihilate the educational infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, which will take years, if not decades, to rebuild:
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor documented the killing of 18,911 school pupils and 1,362 higher education students, in addition to the injury of 2,931 higher education students and tens of thousands of other students who sustained varying injuries. Furthermore, Israeli army attacks have killed 794 teachers and 246 university faculty members and researchers, while injuring 3,261 and 1,491 others, respectively.
This reveals direct and systematic targeting of the Palestinian knowledge system through attacks on its educational and research cadres and through undermining its capacity to continue, recover, and reproduce knowledge.
In what has been termed scholasticide, the deliberate attacks on the educational infrastructure have left almost nothing of the once-bustling schools and universities that produced near-universal literacy in the besieged enclave despite inordinate constraints.
The Israeli army directly bombed 668 school buildings, estroyed 179 public schools, and severely damaged 118 others, in addition to bombing and vandalising 100 UNRWA schools. A total of 63 university buildings were destroyed, with severe damage inflicted on the remaining universities and colleges.
Material damage affected 95 per cent of schools in the Gaza Strip, with over 90 per cent of school buildings requiring reconstruction or major rehabilitation, leaving the vast majority out of service. This reflects a policy of systematic destruction of educational infrastructure, unjustifiable on the grounds of military necessity given the scale, scope, and repeated nature of the attacks.
The ad hoc measures being implemented to help children with a semblance of normalcy are inadequate and will not serve as a replacement for formal education in the devastated enclave.
“Ill-structured temporary solutions and the push towards online learning under power cuts, slow internet, and insecure conditions fail to meet basic educational standards and cannot replace formal education,” the report added. “Relying on such partial measures entrenches ongoing disruption, deepens educational gaps, and leaves lasting psychological and social effects on a generation raised under bombardment, blockade, and deprivation.”
Euro-Med Monitor has made appeals to the relevant international organisations to help restore the conditions for the continuation of the education of Gaza’s long-suffering children, who, having survived the most brutal extermination campaign in modern history, are left facing a bleak future:
“Scholasticide is a central tool in this targeting, cutting children off from formal education during their most critical years, creating deep knowledge gaps, increasing risks of school dropout, child labour, and early marriage, and undermining their ability to recover and rebuild their lives, threatening a generation deprived of healthy growth, dignity, and opportunity.” – Palestine Will Be Free
