‘Cultural Genocide’: Israeli Forces ‘Deliberately’ Targeting Gaza Students, Education Centers
The group, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, said on Saturday that the Israeli military had targeted academic, scientific, and intellectual figures in the strip in “deliberate and specific air raids on their homes without prior notice.”
Those targeted have been crushed to death beneath the rubble, along with members of their families and other displaced families, regretted the Geneva-based group.
"Initial data indicates that there is no justification or clear reason behind the targeting of these people," it added.
The war began following an October 7 operation by the coastal sliver's resistance movements, dubbed Operation al-Aqsa Flood. At least 24,927 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have so far been killed by the Israeli aggression.
According to Euro-Med, the occupation regime systematically destroyed every university in the Gaza Strip during the indiscriminate campaign of aggression.
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Elsewhere in its statement, the organization cited the Gaza-based Palestinian Education Ministry as announcing that the onslaught had claimed the lives of 231 teachers and administrators as well as at least 4,327 students.
"Israel’s widespread and intentional destruction of Palestinian cultural and historical properties, including universities, schools, libraries, and archives, demonstrates its apparent policy of rendering the Gaza Strip uninhabitable," Euro-Med warned.
Calls for academic boycott of Israel
Said Arikat, a journalist and adjunct instructor at the American University in Washington D.C., said Israel's destruction of higher education in Gaza was "methodical" and "deliberate".
Speaking to Al Jazeera from Washington D.C., Mr. Arikat said “it is obvious that Israel is committing cultural genocide in Gaza”.
“There has to be an academic boycott of Israel,” he added. “It has all but destroyed all seven universities in Gaza [which] tells us that it is deliberate.”
He added that “higher education thrived in the past and many young people in Gaza ended up going to university”.
In one of the latest attacks on education centers, Israeli occupation forces on Wednesday blew up Al-Israa University in Gaza after occupying it for 70 days. The university offered courses including finance engineering law for more than 4 ,000 students.
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Israeli media outlets published a video documenting moment occupation forces detonated bombs sent debris dust into air.
The university administration condemned “the barbaric aggression that targeted capabilities students knowledge latest destruction building graduate studies main bachelor’s colleges south Gaza City.”
The statement pointed out occupation soldiers officers looted rare artefacts held by university before demolishing museum building cover traces crime.
Source: Agencies
