Israel commits ‘extermination’ in Gaza by killing in schools, UN experts say

U.N. experts reported on Tuesday that Israel has committed the crime against humanity of “extermination” by killing civilians who were taking refuge in schools and religious sites in Gaza, as part of a “concerted campaign to obliterate Palestinian life.”

The United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel was scheduled to present the report to the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council on June 17. The commission investigated attacks on educational institutions and religious and cultural sites to determine if international law had been violated.

“We are seeing more and more indications that Israel is carrying out a concerted campaign to obliterate Palestinian life in Gaza,” former U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, who chairs the commission, said in a statement.

“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,” she added

Israel withdrew from the Human Rights Council in February, claiming it was biased. When the commission’s previous report in March concluded that Israel had engaged in “genocidal acts” against Palestinians by systematically dismantling women’s healthcare facilities during the conflict in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that the findings were biased and antisemitic.

In its most recent report, the commission indicated that Israel had destroyed over 90% of school and university buildings and more than half of all religious and cultural sites in Gaza.

The conflict was ignited when Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 individuals in Israel during a surprise attack in October 2023 and took 251 hostages back to the enclave, according to Israeli figures. Israel retaliated with a military campaign that has resulted in the deaths of over 54,000 Palestinians, according to health authorities in Gaza.

The damage inflicted on the Palestinian education system was not limited to Gaza, the report noted, highlighting increased Israeli military operations in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as harassment of students and settler attacks in those areas.