51猎奇

This is a non-United Nations document. The United Nations provides these documents only as a convenience for reference purposes, and the inclusion of a document does not imply the endorsement of its content by the United Nations.

For readability, footnotes have been omitted from this post. Please refer to the original report for the complete footnotes.

28 September 2026

Introduction:

Scholasticide as genocide

More than two years of genocide have resulted in the systematic destruction of the Palestinian education system in Gaza, an intentional pattern of scholasticide that goes beyond the devastation of the present to destroy the future of Palestinian youth and the leadership of Palestine’s academics, teachers and public intellectuals. This report builds on PCHR’s 2005 report Voices of a Genocide to show how Israel has conducted scholasticide as an integral part of its genocide against Gaza since 7 October 2023, examining five patterns of scholasticide: killings and assassinations of university and school teachers, students, staff, and administrators; causing bodily or mental harm to university and school teachers, students, staff, and administrators; destruction of educational facilities; obstructing the creation of new educational structures; and conduct that disproportionately impacts students.

Education is critical to sustaining group identity, collective knowledge and social tradition. The term scholasticide describes Israel’s intent to destroy education in the knowledge of this fundamental role in sustaining the existence of the Palestinian people. According to Art II of the Genocide Convention:

genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part […]

This report shows how Israel’s campaign of scholasticide in Gaza has aimed at destroying the educational system and the social and cultural foundations of Palestinian identity. It outlines the cumulative impact of scholasticide that has not only immediate repercussions on all levels of the functioning of society but also devastating implications for future generations.

In September 2025, PCHR stressed that the continued deprivation of Gaza’s children of their right to education constitutes a systematic crime amounting to an act of genocide aimed at eradicating the future of Palestinian generations. In January 2026, PCHR reported on the impact of this crime on women, disrupting their educational paths, deepening economic and social marginalization, and stripping an entire generation of its right to knowledge and to become productive and active members of their society.

Israel’s intent to destroy education in Gaza was clear from the beginning of its genocidal war on Gaza. By April 2024, United Nations human rights experts had expressed their alarm over scholasticide in Gaza, referring to “the systemic obliteration of education through the arrest, detention or killing of teachers, students and staff, and the destruction of educational infrastructure.” At that time, just over six months after the beginning of the genocide, the UN experts reported that Israel had killed almost 6,300 students, 300 teachers and over 100 university professors. All twelve universities, including the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG), had been bombed by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), resulting in the destruction of libraries, cultural centres, and archives hosting rare documentation of the forced expulsion and displacement of the Palestinian population during the 1948 Nakba. The scale of these attacks continued to escalate. By July 2026, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) had documented the killing of presumably 20,051 students by Israeli forces. Furthermore, more than 830 teachers and educational staff, as well as over 194 scholars, academics, and researchers, had also been killed during the genocide. In October 2025, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that nearly 92“ / ” %92 per cent of schools would need “full reconstruction or major rehabilitation to be functional again”.

The genocidal nature of this scholasticide is evident in the importance of education as the foundation upon which the Palestinian people has cultivated its collective identity particularly since the 1948 Nakba. Israel’s destruction of Gaza transcends the destruction of physical infrastructure and harm to persons to demonstrate Israel’s ideological aim and ultimate objective of denying and eliminating the Palestinian people’s existence, sever its historic connection to its homeland, and eradicate its future. By erasing historical and institutional records and blocking opportunities for restitution and restoration, Israel’s conduct undermines the conditions necessary for the people’s continued existence in their homeland.

The importance of education is clear in the protection it has received in international law, and the lens of scholasticide shows that Israel has violated its legal obligations in a systematic and prolonged manner for decades prior to October 2023. Since the early years of the 1967 occupation, schools, universities, and other educational institutions have repeatedly been damaged or destroyed during Israeli military operations. PCHR documentation shows that between 2000 and 2004 alone, at least seventy-three educational institutions in the Gaza Strip were partially or totally destroyed in Israeli military attacks. During the 2008-2009 Gaza War, Israel bombarded or otherwise damaged numerous public and private schools, including institutions administered by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). The UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict (2009) concluded that these attacks severely disrupted the educational sector and raised serious concerns regarding violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) governing the protection of civilian objects. The persistence of such attacks over successive military campaigns demonstrates that the destruction of education in Gaza forms part of a broader structural pattern of violence directed against Palestinian civilian life, resulting in long-term disruption to the educational system and profound harm to Palestinian society.

This report shows, firstly, that certain acts of scholasticide committed by Israel constitute genocidal acts under Article II(c) of the Genocide Convention. Secondly, it shows that scholasticide is a comprehensive and systematic pattern of conduct that evidences Israel’s dolus specialis – the specific intent to commit genocide.

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Conclusion:

Education is essential to sustain and preserve the identity of a people; scholasticide is a systematic policy of destroying the education of a besieged and occupied people. This report relies on testimonies from Gaza to illustrate the different aspects of Israel’s policy of scholasticide as part and parcel of its commission of a genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza. As part of its acts of genocide, Israel killed and seriously injured (both physically and mentally) students and teachers in Gaza and imposed on them conditions of starvation and displacement that are calculated to bring the destruction of the Palestinian people on Gaza. This genocidal intent is clear in other aspects of scholasticide through patterns of conduct that destroy education, destroy the ability to provide it, and prevent access to it.

The long-term effects of Israel’s collective and ongoing genocide on students of the Gaza Strip are among the most serious humanitarian and developmental repercussions that may last for decades to come, given that they are not confined the destruction of the educational infrastructure but extend to encompass the psychological, cognitive and social formation of an entire generation. Students in Gaza have lived under exceptional circumstances characterised by constant bombing, the loss of security, repeated displacement, the loss of family members, friends and teachers, alongside witnessing scenes of death and destruction on a daily basis, which has created an extremely harsh environment unfit for children and young people to grow up in naturally. Circumstances such as these suggest the probability of a rise in the rates of chronic psychological disorders among students, including PTSD, chronic anxiety, severe depression, social isolation, sleep disorders and constant fear, as well as weak capacity for concentration, memory and comprehension. These disorders directly affect academic achievement as students become incapable of normal interaction in the educational environment or to continue their education in a settled and regular manner.

Furthermore, the lengthy and repeated interruption of education by reason of the destruction of schools and universities and shelters that have been turned into temporary alternatives for education has led to deep educational gaps which it may be difficult to make up in the future. Thousands of students may be deprived of their right to access a safe and stable educational environment, in addition to the lack of electricity, internet, educational materials and qualified academic staff. These adversities not only affect the current teaching level but also threaten the professional and economic future of students. Many of them face the risk of dropping out of education or lower-case “opportunity of a university education or professional training which limits their opportunity to secure stable jobs or to actively participate in rebuilding their community in the future. Similarly, the decline in the quality of education due to the war will lead in the long term to a lower level of skills and expertise in Palestinian society, weakening the overall development process and negatively affecting human capital in Gaza.

Also among the most prominent long-term effects are growing feelings of lack of stability and a loss of faith in the future among students. Many of them are at the point where they live in a constant state of anxiety and fear of losing their lives, their shelter, or members of their family at any moment. These constant feelings of being under threat can lead to disordered psychological and behavioural patterns such as social withdrawal, aggression, lack of motivation to study or work, or feelings of impotence and hopelessness. Students who have suffered permanent injuries, such as amputation, spinal cord injuries, and loss of sight or hearing, will face complex challenges relating to the possibility of their access to inclusive education and securing rehabilitation services, psychological support and social integration, especially in light of the collapse of the health sector and the weak possibilities available in Gaza. The long-term lack of supervision for these students could lead to the deepening of feelings of marginalization and social exclusion, and the contraction of opportunities for them to pursue education and a normal life.

On the social and cultural levels, the war and the genocide have contributed to the reshaping of students’ consciousness and collective identity in the shadow of an environment dominated by violence, loss, and deprivation. Growing up under conditions of ongoing genocide leaves profound marks on the ways in which students perceive the world, the concepts of security and stability, and human relationships, and can lead to disturbances in personality development and trust in society and institutions. Furthermore, the loss of a large number of teachers and academics and the destruction of universities, libraries, and cultural centres not only affects the current educational process but also deprives coming generations of a cognitive and cultural environment capable of producing science, creativity, and critical thinking.

Furthermore, the continuation of these conditions without genuine interventions for psychological, educational, and rehabilitation support will lead to the perpetuation of a long-term crisis threatening the future of an entire generation. Students who experience ongoing trauma without psychological treatment or support are at risk of transmitting the effects of these traumas to their future family and social lives, creating repercussions that extend across generations. Therefore, what students in Gaza are suffering cannot be reduced to an emergency educational crisis; rather, it represents a profound humanitarian and developmental crisis that infringes upon the right to education, to a dignified life, and psychological and social stability, and that threatens the long-term future of Palestinian society as a whole.