The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor confirms the deliberate and systematic destruction of universities and schools in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli occupation, in addition to the killing of academics, and the Ministry of Endowments in Gaza counts 1,000 mosques destroyed by the occupation in the Strip.



The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor announced in a statement today, Sunday, that it had documented the killing of 94 Palestinian university professors by the Israeli occupation “army,” along with hundreds of teachers and thousands of students, as part of the comprehensive crime of genocide that it has been waging on the Gaza Strip since October 7. 2023.

The Observatory explained that the Israeli “army” carried out deliberate and specific attacks, among thousands of air strikes, against academic, scientific and intellectual figures in the Gaza Strip, where dozens of them were killed in direct raids that targeted their homes without warning, along with members of their families or other families who were displaced to them or They migrated to it.

The Observatory stated in its statement that “preliminary data on the targeting operations indicate that there is no justification or clear goal behind targeting these academics.”

He pointed out that the list that he documented includes 17 individuals who hold professor degrees, 59 who hold doctoral degrees, and 18 who hold master’s degrees, stressing that this number is not final, and pointing out that there are estimates that confirm the presence of other numbers of targeted academics, as well as those who hold graduate degrees, as no They are counted as a result of documentation difficulties resulting from the inability to move, the interruption of communications and the Internet, and the presence of thousands of missing persons who have not yet been counted.

He also pointed out that the academics targeted by Israeli killing are distributed across various knowledge sciences, and the majority of them represent the foundations of academic work in the universities of the Gaza Strip.

The Euro-Mediterranean Observatory said that what enhances the possibility of Israel deliberately targeting all aspects of life in the Gaza Strip is the systematic and widespread destruction carried out by the Israeli occupation forces of cultural objects, including historical ones, adding that over the days of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, the occupation directly destroyed all Universities there.

The destruction of universities, according to the observatory’s documentation, came in stages. The first stage was bombing operations that targeted buildings at the Islamic and Al-Azhar universities. Then the matter extended to the rest of the universities, leading to some of them being blown up and completely blown up after they were converted into military barracks, as happened in Al-Isra University, south of Gaza City, which the Israeli media published a video clip a few days ago documenting its bombing by army forces, which came 70 days after it was transformed into a military barracks and a temporary detention center.

The Observatory stated that initial estimates also indicate that hundreds of university students were killed as a result of the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.

He pointed out that destroying universities and killing academics and students will make it more difficult to resume university and academic life after the attack stops, as it may take years for universities to be able to resume studies in a completely destroyed environment.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Education, about 4,327 students were killed and 7,819 others were injured, while 231 teachers and administrators were killed, and 756 were injured with various injuries.

According to the Observatory, there are 281 government schools and 65 schools affiliated with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Refugees (UNRWA) that were completely or partially destroyed in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli targeting of schools affected 90% of government school buildings, which were subjected to direct and indirect damage. In addition, about 29% of school buildings remain inoperable as a result of being completely demolished or severely damaged, while 133 government schools are used as shelter centers in the Gaza Strip.

The Euro-Mediterranean Observatory stressed in the statement that what Israel is pursuing through its systematic military attack of widespread and deliberate destruction of cultural and historical properties, such as universities, schools, libraries, and archives, comes within the framework of Israel’s public policies of making the Gaza Strip an uninhabitable place, thus creating A coercive environment that lacks the minimum necessities of life and services, which may ultimately push its residents to emigrate.

In conclusion, the Observatory’s statement stated that launching military attacks against civilian objects, especially those that enjoy special protection, such as cultural and historical objects, not only constitutes a grave violation of the rules of international humanitarian law and a war crime in accordance with the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, but also comes within the framework of The crime of genocide committed by "Israel" against the residents of the Gaza Strip, through which it aims to destroy the Palestinians physically and spiritually.

Yesterday, Saturday, the Euro-Mediterranean Observatory revealed in a statement that “Israel” has recently moved to the stage of emptying Gaza City of its residents forcefully and by force of arms, indicating that the Israeli behavior comes within an escalation of the crime of forced displacement, in addition to the escalation of the policy of starvation and the prevention of humanitarian supplies to the residents of the Gaza City areas. And in the northern Gaza Strip, it uses this as a weapon to achieve forced displacement and force civilians to move in an attempt to avoid death by bombing or starvation.

It should be noted that, in addition to the extensive destruction of schools and universities in Gaza reviewed by the Euro-Mediterranean Observatory, the occupation also destroyed about a thousand mosques, including ancient mosques dating back hundreds of years. Also, the Israeli media itself reported on December 10, 2023, that it had destroyed 192 mosques in the Gaza Strip under the pretext of the presence of tunnels underneath them.

In this context, the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs in Gaza announced today, Sunday, that the Israeli “army” destroyed a thousand mosques and dozens of cemeteries in the Strip, and assassinated more than a hundred preachers, during its ongoing war since October 7, 2023.

The ministry said, in a statement: “The number of mosques that were completely or partially destroyed reached 1,000 out of 1,200 mosques, including ancient mosques, and they need reconstruction at a cost of approximately 500 million dollars.”

She added in the statement that “the Zionist machine of treachery assassinated more than a hundred preachers, including scholars, preachers, preachers, imams, muezzins, and memorizers,” in addition to its continued destruction of dozens of cemeteries and exhuming graves whose sanctity they violated and whose bodies they stole, in clear defiance of international constitutions and human rights, according to the statement.

The Israeli occupation aircraft launched raids on the historic Al-Omari Mosque in the Old City of Gaza City, which led to the destruction of large parts of it. It was founded more than 1,400 years ago and is considered one of the largest and most ancient mosques in Gaza, and the third largest mosque in occupied Palestine after the Al-Aqsa and Ahmed Pasha Mosques. Al-Jazzar in Acre, and it is equivalent in size to the Mahmoudiya Mosque in Jaffa.

The occupation "army" also indiscriminately targeted Christian churches, committing a massacre on October 20, when it bombed the Greek Orthodox Church of St. Porphyrios, where Christian and Muslim families in the Gaza Strip took refuge.

A preliminary report issued by the non-governmental organization Heritage for Peace had previously revealed that 104 sites had been damaged or completely destroyed due to Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip. The data includes historical religious sites, homes, museums and archaeological sites.


Al-Mayadeen

When a university becomes a storage warehouse for terrorist weapon cache..its losses its status as an institution of learning and becomes a legitimate military target...!!!