Attacks on Schools During the Gaza War

Two days into the war, more than 120,000 people displaced in Gaza were being accommodated in UNRWA schools, establishing these facilities as shelters early in the conflict.[4] The extent of damage to buildings and infrastructure during those first two days was not yet known.[4] Schools subsequently described in strike reports included educational buildings, former schools no longer operating as classrooms, and compounds where displaced families were living.[1][2]

The Palestinian Ministry of Education suspended the 2023–2024 school year for Gaza’s 625,000 schoolchildren on November 6, 2023, because of the escalation of the conflict.[2] The suspension preceded many of the school strikes documented in 2024, when reports frequently described educational facilities in terms of their additional use as emergency accommodation.[1][2] In September 2024, for example, the former al-Falah School was inactive for educational purposes but was sheltering displaced people.[5]

Israeli targeting accounts situated the attacks within operations against Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, frequently identifying command rooms, weapons, or terrorist operatives inside school compounds.[6][7] Reports of terrorist-group activity also extended to civilian infrastructure more broadly: Hamas used population centers and locations including medical facilities to launch rockets, store weapons, and hold hostages, while media accounts described Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket-launch sites adjacent to schools, playgrounds, and hospitals.[2]

In January 2024, the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs alleged that Israeli security officials had found tunnel shafts, weapons caches, and incendiary materials in some UNRWA schools during ground operations.[8] Its commentary did not identify the schools, provide discovery dates or a count, or document attacks on the particular schools it discussed.[8]

By mid-December 2023, an estimate placed the proportion of Gaza’s schools damaged or destroyed at two-thirds; a separate satellite-image analysis put the number at 350 by the end of the year.[2] These figures measured damage or destruction rather than providing a list of attacks directed specifically at schools.[2] Israeli aerial bombardment and shelling of civilian areas also caused deaths in schools and shelters for internally displaced people.[2]

Between October 7 and December 31, 2023, 60 UNRWA installations were directly hit, while 68 different installations sustained collateral damage.[2] UNRWA reported that 314 internally displaced people sheltering in its installations were killed and at least 1,129 injured during that period.[2] These installation-wide figures did not identify every affected facility as a school and therefore were broader than a school-only casualty or damage count.[2]

Lulwa Abdel Wahab al-Qatami School, in Gaza City’s Tel al-Hawa neighborhood, was hit in January 2024.[9] Its grounds subsequently served for months as a shelter for displaced families.[9] The reported account did not specify why the school had been hit.[9]

On May 22, 2024, Israeli aircraft struck a compound inside a UNRWA school in Nuseirat.[6] The IDF said Hamas terrorists were operating there and that the compound contained mortars, firearms, and explosive devices.[6] The military identified an anti-tank operative and a member of Hamas’s Nukhba Force among the terrorists at the site, and said the strike had been planned and executed with precision to avoid harming uninvolved people as much as possible.[6]

On June 6, 2024, Israel struck a UNRWA school in Nuseirat where displaced Palestinian civilians were sheltering.[7] The IDF said 20–30 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members had gathered in three classrooms separate from the area occupied by civilians.[7] Its description included members of Hamas’s Nukhba Force, and it said the strike had been postponed twice to reduce civilian harm.[10] The military subsequently published the names of nine Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members it said were killed and continued efforts to identify others.[10]

The Hamas-run government media office reported at least 27 deaths.[7] A UNRWA communications official relayed reports ranging from 35 to 45 deaths but said that figure could not yet be confirmed.[7] Another account described an initial hospital breakdown of nine women and 14 children among the dead, subsequently revised to three women, nine children, and 21 men.[11] Israel said it had struck only after determining that civilians were not present in the classrooms targeted.[11]

The United States contacted Israel about the June 6 strike.[12] Israel told American officials that it was targeting 20–30 Hamas and other terrorist-group members in one part of the building and had used a precision strike intended to avoid the areas sheltering civilians.[12] U.S. spokesperson Matthew Miller called for Israel to disclose information about the operation and said Washington wanted to establish what had happened.[12] He also referred to reports of 14 children killed, while emphasizing that those reports required verification.[12]

A separate account described a June 2024 strike on the UNRWA Asmaa school in Gaza’s Shati area.[13] The IDF described a container room as a Hamas operations cell and meeting point, with approximately 30 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members occupying three rooms, and said nine terrorists had been killed.[13] The account supplied a June 5 date.[13]

On July 6, Israeli aircraft struck the al-Jaouni school complex in Nuseirat, which was sheltering people displaced by the war.[14] The IDF said Hamas operatives were using the facility as a command center.[14] Hamas health authorities reported 16 deaths and approximately 50 wounded, while an eyewitness described seeing children among the dead.[14] A separate Hamas government media-office account said around 7,000 displaced people were staying at the complex and reported more than 16 deaths and more than 75 injuries.[15]

Another strike involving a UNRWA school in Nuseirat was reported on July 16.[16] The IDF said aircraft had targeted terrorists operating from the school and using it to plan and carry out attacks.[16] It described precautions including aerial surveillance, precision weapons, and additional intelligence, and said reports of civilian injuries were being examined.[16] A separately relayed casualty report put the toll at 15 killed and dozens injured.[16]

On August 3, a strike hit the Hamama school site in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighborhood.[17] Initial reports attributed to Gaza authorities gave death tolls of at least ten and at least 17.[17] The Israeli military described the site as a command center, while Hamas denied operating from civilian facilities.[17]

The following day, Israel struck the Hassan Salama and al-Nasr schools in Gaza City.[17][18] The IDF said the compounds were Hamas command-and-control centers used by its al-Furqan Battalion to conceal operatives and plan attacks against Israeli forces and Israel.[17] Palestinian sources reported at least 30 deaths, and a Civil Defence spokesman said most of those killed were women and children.[17] Hamas said displaced people were sheltering at the schools and called the attack a massacre.[18] Hamas later confirmed that Jaber Aziz, described as a prominent commander, was among those killed.[17]

On August 8, the IDF said it struck compounds at the Abd al-Fateh Hamouda and al-Zahraa schools.[18] Reports gave a death toll of 15 or 16.[18][19] These attacks preceded the August 10 strike on the al-Tabi’in school complex, which became the subject of extensive casualty reporting, Israeli identification announcements, and requests for information from the United States.[18][20]

On August 10, the IDF and Shin Bet said they struck a Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad command room embedded in a mosque within the al-Tabi’in school complex in Gaza City.[19] The complex was sheltering displaced Palestinians, and the strike hit the men’s section of the mosque.[19] Israel said it used three precision munitions, described the target as an active military facility, and said women and children were absent from the specific area targeted.[19]

The military initially described approximately 20 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members using the site for operational planning.[19] By that evening, it had released names, photographs, and roles for 19 people it identified as killed.[21] A follow-up account relayed the military’s statement that intelligence had tracked an active terrorist facility at the school for weeks and that approximately 24 armed members of the two organizations had operated there.[21] Subsequent Israeli announcements identified 31 people as terrorists killed in the strike, following the initial identification of 19 and a further twelve.[11]

Palestinian reports ranged from approximately 70 dead, based on medical sources cited by the BBC, to more than 100 killed and dozens wounded in a WAFA report relayed by Ynet.[21][19] Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defense authority reported 100 deaths.[21] Witness accounts described civilian deaths at the complex.[22]

Israel rejected the scale of the reported casualty figures and accused Hamas of inflating the overall toll.[19] Israeli announcements initially confirmed 19 terrorists killed and later identified 31, while Palestinian reports ranged up to more than 100 deaths.[11][21] The White House expressed concern about reports of civilian casualties and requested further details from Israel.[21]

On August 20, the IDF said it struck a Hamas command-and-control compound concealed in Gaza City’s Mustafa Hafez school.[23] Palestinian sources reported at least 20 people killed at the school.[23] The report supplied no Israeli casualty figure for that strike.[23] Reports of children killed in a separate airstrike in Deir al-Balah concerned a different incident rather than the Mustafa Hafez school attack.[23]

Israeli operational reporting described further strikes on school compounds throughout September and early October 2024.[24] Examples included the former Safad school on September 1, Halima al-Sa’diyya in early September, al-Jaouni on September 11, and additional compounds in Gaza City and central Gaza in early October.[24] Israel described Hamas operatives at Halima al-Sadia School in Sheikh Radwan as using the site to plan and carry out attacks.[11]

The September 11 strike on al-Jaouni School in Nuseirat affected a site that UNRWA described as a temporary home for approximately 12,000 displaced Palestinians, most of them women and children.[1][3] UNRWA said the school had been hit five times during the war.[1] Hospital officials reported 14 deaths after the September strike, while a subsequent account gave a reported Palestinian toll of 18.[25][1]

UNRWA said six of its employees were killed, describing the incident as its largest staff death toll in a single strike since the war began.[3] The IDF said it had identified nine Hamas operatives killed, including three people it said were also UNRWA employees.[3] It said it had repeatedly sought details from UNRWA about the staff members reported killed so that it could examine the allegation.[1][25] Israel described a command room at the site as the target.[11]

On September 21, the IDF said it struck a Hamas command room embedded in the former al-Falah School in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood.[5] Although inactive as an educational institution during the war, the school was being used as a shelter for displaced people.[5] Gaza’s civil defense agency and health ministry reported 21 deaths; the agency’s spokesman said the dead included 13 children and six women, with approximately 30 people injured.[5] The IDF said it used precision munitions, aerial surveillance, and other intelligence to reduce civilian harm.[5]

A review of Israeli operational reports published on October 8 described almost 20 strikes on Hamas command-and-control centers located in schools during the preceding two months.[24] The named school or former-school sites included Amr Ibn al-As, Raazi El Shua, Ibn al-Haytam, Kafr Qasem, Khaled ibn al-Walid, al-Faluja, Umm al-Fahm, Abu Ja’far al-Mansour, Muscat, Rimal, Al-Bureij Preparatory, Nuseirat Girls’, Ahmad al-Kurd, Ibn Rushd, and Khalifa bin Zayed.[24] The compilation also included Safad, Halima al-Sa’diyya, al-Jaouni, al-Falah, and sites identified with Shejaiya or Shuja’iyya.[24]

On October 17, Israel struck the former Abu Hussein School in northern Gaza.[26] The IDF and Shin Bet identified 18 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members they said were killed and described an embedded command post used to plan attacks.[26] Palestinian media reported 24 deaths and 150 wounded, while another account described the school as sheltering people displaced from Jabaliya refugee camp.[26] The military said it had used a precision munition, aerial surveillance, and other intelligence to mitigate civilian harm.[26]

A strike on a school in Gaza City’s Tuffah neighborhood was reported on April 4, 2025, as having occurred the preceding Thursday.[27] Palestinian medics said at least 31 people sheltering there were killed.[27] Gaza civil defense reported approximately 100 injured, while a health ministry spokesman referred to roughly 70 wounded and said the toll could rise because some were critically injured.[27] He said the recovered bodies included 14 children and five women.[27] The Israeli military said it had struck a Hamas command-and-control center in the area and had taken steps to reduce civilian harm.[27]

On December 11, 2024, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution expressing grave concern about damage to Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, including UNRWA schools and facilities serving as shelters.[28] The resolution deplored damage to agency facilities, including schools sheltering displaced civilians, and passed with 159 votes in favor, nine against, and eleven abstentions.[28]

American responses to individual strikes focused on obtaining further information and reducing civilian harm.[12][20] After the June 6 Nuseirat strike, Washington sought disclosure of Israeli information about the attack.[12] Following the August 10 al-Tabi’in strike, U.S. spokesperson Vedant Patel said people sheltering at the school had been killed and that the United States was seeking more information from Israel.[20] He emphasized that Israel should take every possible step to minimize civilian casualties.[20]

In the August 12 briefing, Patel stated the U.S. government’s position that schools may lose protected status under international law when used by combatants.[20] He added that this did not remove the moral and strategic imperative to minimize civilian deaths and other impacts.[20] Those comments set out a governmental position in response to the incident rather than adjudicating the legality of the particular strike.[20]

The effects on education extended beyond the casualty tolls of individual attacks: the school year had been suspended for 625,000 children, while hundreds of school buildings were reported damaged or destroyed.[2] A later reported estimate put the proportion of schools damaged or destroyed at more than 97 percent.[9] That estimate came without a date or methodology in the available account.[9]

The record distinguishes individual strikes from broader estimates of educational destruction: the estimate of 350 schools damaged or destroyed by the end of 2023 did not establish that every damaged building had been the intended target of an attack.[2] Similarly, UNRWA’s figures for direct hits, collateral damage, and casualties across its installations covered facilities beyond schools alone.[2] These different categories document related consequences of the war but do not constitute interchangeable counts of school attacks.[2]

Military-operation compilations likewise used different scopes.[22][24] In the months before August 10, the IDF said it had carried out dozens of strikes against Hamas sites embedded in schools and other civilian shelters, while an EU foreign-policy official referred to at least ten schools targeted in the preceding weeks.[22] The October review described almost 20 school-based command-and-control targets over the preceding two months, drawing its pattern from Israeli operational reports rather than an independently compiled incident survey.[24]

In June 2025, the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs discussed and criticized a UN Commission of Inquiry report concerning attacks on educational facilities and religious and cultural sites in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel.[29] The commentary characterized the commission as attributing destruction of Gaza school buildings to Israel and criticizing civilian casualties and warnings it considered inadequate.[29] It also said the commission had found military use of a school by Hamas in one incident, without supplying the school’s name, the incident date, or a casualty figure.[29]

The same commentary argued that Hamas placed weapons, rocket launchers, operatives, and other military assets in or beneath civilian sites, including schools and UNRWA facilities.[29] It did not provide school-by-school evidence for that broader characterization.[29]

The principal disputes concern military use of particular compounds, the identities of those killed, and the total civilian toll.[22][25] Israeli announcements identified command posts and named Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members, while Palestinian authorities and witnesses reported deaths among people sheltering at the same sites; the available accounts do not independently reconcile every incident.[7][22] General evidence about terrorist-group use of civilian infrastructure does not establish the military use of every damaged school.[2]

The al-Tabi’in strike illustrates these evidentiary limits: reported Palestinian totals ranged widely, while Israeli identification announcements expanded from 19 to 31 alleged terrorists killed.[11][21] An August 12 American briefing referred to a reported toll of 93 and Israel’s identification of 31 terrorist-group members without independently confirming either figure.[20] At al-Jaouni, UNRWA’s report of six staff deaths and Israel’s identification of three UNRWA employees among nine Hamas operatives remained separately attributed accounts.[3]

Minor variations also appear in incident dating and preliminary casualty reports, including the June school-strike accounts and early September reporting on Halima al-Sa’diyya.[11][13] Such variations do not resolve the substantive questions of targeting, civilian protection, or the combatant–civilian breakdown of those killed.[12][20]