A United Nations report has accused Israel of committing the crime against humanity of “extermination” through attacks on Palestinian civilians sheltering in Gaza’s schools and religious sites.
Released on Tuesday, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel, found that Israel has destroyed over 90 percent of Gaza’s school and university buildings and more than half of its religious and cultural sites.
The report described these actions as part of a “concerted campaign to obliterate Palestinian life in Gaza.”
Over 658,000 children have been without schooling for 20 months.
Navi Pillay, commission chair and former UN high commissioner for human rights said:
Children in Gaza have lost their childhood. With no education available, they are forced to worry about survival amid attacks, uncertainty, starvation and subhuman living conditions.
Navi Pillay.
The commission also documented significant disruptions to Palestinian education in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, where over 806,000 students face challenges from intensified Israeli military operations, checkpoints, demolitions, and settler attacks.
Israeli forces were found to have deliberately burned and demolished educational facilities, with some, like part of Al-Azhar University’s Al-Mughraqa campus, repurposed as a synagogue for troops.
The report highlighted attacks on religious sites used as civilian refuges in Gaza, killing hundreds, including women and children.
Pillay stated:
Israel’s targeting of the educational, cultural and religious life of the Palestinian people will harm the present generations and generations to come, hindering their right to self-determination.
Navi Pillay.
In East Jerusalem, restrictions on Palestinian access to sites like Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount have fueled tensions.
The report underscored the destruction of Gaza’s cultural and religious sites, with all ten investigated sites classified as civilian objects suffering “devastating destruction” without military justification.
Artefacts were looted or destroyed, and in the West Bank, Palestinian access to heritage sites was curtailed while Israeli authorities developed and profited from them.
“Attacks on cultural and religious sites have deeply impacted intangible culture, such as religious and cultural practices, memories and history,” Pillay said.
The commission called for Israel to halt attacks on civilian institutions, end its occupation, and adhere to International Court of Justice measures.
The findings will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council on June 17, 2025, despite Israel’s withdrawal from the council in February, following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that it is “an anti-Semitic, corrupt, terror-supporting, and irrelevant body.”