Al-Israa University Jan.17, 2025. (Credit: Ehab Abo Khair.)
"Education is not collateral damage — it is the target," says Ehab Abo Khair, spokesperson for al-Israa University in Gaza. Al-Israa University, once a cornerstone of higher education in Gaza, was the last standing university in the region in early 2025. Abo Khair explains, the university was occupied by the Israeli army for 70 days before being completely leveled on Jan. 17, 2025, two days before a cease-fire started in the enclave.
The targeting and destruction of Gaza’s educational infrastructure since Oct. 7, 2023, have left the region's academic community shattered. The scale of devastation is staggering: as of March 2025, according to the most recent U.N. report more than 80 percent of Gaza’s schools have been damaged or completely destroyed, and all 11 universities in the region have been reduced to rubble, leaving an entire generation of students unable to continue their education.
Al-Israa University before Jan.17, 2025 (Credit: Ehad Abo Khair.)
Ehab Abo Khair, who witnessed the devastation firsthand at al-Israa University,: "They didn’t just bomb it. They leveled it methodically," he said. "They destroyed the mosque, the museum, the sports fields, the hospital — everything. Afterwards, decomposed bodies of civilians were found under the rubble." The Israeli army claimed on X that the university was home to ammunition and AK-47s belonging to Hamas.
"Even if schools and universities were used for military purposes — which remains largely unproven — any attack must still adhere to the principle of proportionality." Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch and visiting professor at Princetons’ School of Public and International Affairs. He added, “Destroying an entire university to possibly kill one combatant? That’s a textbook case of disproportionate force.”
Outspoken in condemning the attacks on Gaza’s educational infrastructure, Roth emphasized that such actions are not just morally indefensible but also constitute war crimes. "Deliberately attacking educational institutions is a violation of international humanitarian law," Roth stated. "Under Article 8(2)(b)(ii) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, such acts can and should be prosecuted.
This brutal assault on education has even been labeled “scholasticide,” a term coined to describe the calculated obliteration of academic institutions and intellectual life.
First introduced by Palestinian Professor Karma Nabulsi in 2009, the term was coined as the “deliberate and systematic destruction of educational systems.” Seen by many as part of a broader strategy to break the spirit of a community and deny its people the ability to rebuild,the term has been used as a powerful descriptor of the ongoing attacks on Gaza’s education system.
In 2024, U.N. experts raised alarms about the deliberate destruction of the Palestinian education system. They warned that this could constitute an act of "scholasticide," a systematic effort to eliminate education for Palestinian children.
According to a recent U.N. report, over 60 percent of Gaza's educational facilities have been destroyed, including at least 22 libraries and museums — marking a profound loss to the region's cultural and intellectual heritage.
Reports emerged of Israeli soldiers burning books in Gaza, a disturbing act that sparked widespread outrage. In response, Israel officially condemned the incident on X, stating that it was an isolated act and promising to investigate the matter thoroughly.
Joining the chorus of experts addressing this phenomenon is Myriam Benraad, professor of international relations and diplomacy at Schiller International University and author of “Scholasticide, Educide, Epistemicide: Israel’s War on Gaza, Revenge Against Knowledge.” She defines these terms as extensions of legal frameworks that go beyond physical destruction:
“What I’m highlighting is a systematic obliteration not just of infrastructure, but of knowledge itself,” Benraad explains. “Scholasticide and epistemicide describe the deliberate erasure of educational institutions and intellectual life — an assault on a society’s capacity to think, learn and transmit knowledge.”
War on knowledge
The latest U.N. report explains that the human toll within academic institutions has been devastating: 5,479 students, 261 teachers, and 95 university professors have been killed, while more than 7,800 students and 756 teachers have been injured. As a result of the ongoing conflict, around 625,000 students have been left without access to any form of education for more than 18 months.
Despite the overwhelming destruction, Gaza’s academic community continues to resist. Online learning platforms, developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, provide a faint glimmer of hope — but most students lack electricity, internet access or even safe spaces to learn. “Our students once contributed to global science, medicine, and art. They can again,” Abo Khair insists. “But we need the world to care — not after the war is over, but now.”
The long-term psychological impact is staggering. More than one million children in Gaza now require mental health support, according to UNRWA. The executive director of the World Health Organization’s Emergencies Programs stated on Thursday that “the minds and bodies of children in Gaza are being shattered after two months of aid blockade and renewed airstrikes.”
Since March 2, Israel has prevented the entry of any and all supplies into Gaza, including medical, fuel and food.
“The big question now is: what happens next? What will reconstruction look like, and what future awaits Gaza’s youth? Their fundamental right to education has been erased. There is no access, no relief, no plan,” Benraad says. “Many universities, particularly in the U.S. and Europe, are already distancing themselves from Israel because of this.”
Around the world, students and professors from top universities — Princeton, Columbia, Harvard — have staged protests in solidarity with Gaza. But such support is not without backlash under the new Trump administration, which has cut funds and arrested foreign students who had expressed their support for the Palestinians.
What is happening in Gaza is not simply the collateral damage of war — it is, as Benraad, Abo Khair, and Roth argue, a deliberate campaign to destroy education and culture. The concept of scholasticide, though not yet codified in international law, is emerging as a critical framework for understanding this war on knowledge.