Ramallah – Ma’an – The International Academic Campaign issued a report in which it monitored aspects of the occupation’s violations and persecution of the Palestinian academic sector for the period between May and July, in light of the ongoing crimes of genocide.
The academic campaign indicated that there were more than 115 academic martyrs.
Increase in martyrs in the academic sector:
The report indicated that in recent weeks, the number of academic martyrs, including researchers, university presidents, doctors and lecturers, has risen to more than 115 martyrs, including 15 female doctors and academics, with the monitoring and recording of a new group among them, the martyrdom of Dr. Osama Nofal, Director General of Policies and Planning at the Ministry of Economy in Gaza, in the Mawasi Khan Yunis massacre on 7/13/2024. The martyrdom of Dr. Islam Jamil Al-Tahrawi was revealed last December. She was a lecturer and head of the field supervision department at the Islamic University in Gaza, and Dr. Professor
Khitam Al-Wasify, head of the Physics Department at the Islamic University in Gaza, and Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Science there, the author of 60 research papers in electromagnetism and many research papers in electronic optics, and she won the title of Palestinian Woman in the Intellectual Field in 2022. She was martyred in an Israeli raid with her husband and a number of her children during the current July. Dr. Anwar Nassar, from Al-Quds Open University, was also martyred on 15/7/2024, who was martyred with his son Ahmed Nassar after the artillery shelling north of the Nuseirat camp. On 15/7/, it was announced that Dr. Iyad Zaki Aql from Nuseirat had died of his wounds after the occupation bombed his home.
The martyrdom of Professor Samir Ahmed Hussein Al-Tarturi was announced on 4/29/2024 in Gaza City, a professor and head of a department at Al-Azhar Religious Institute. On 7/22/2024, the assassination and martyrdom of media activist and political researcher Dr. Haidar Ibrahim Al-Masdar was announced
as a result of the occupation bombing of a tent inside Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah. Meanwhile, the martyrdom of Dr. Mamdouh Abu Al-Hasani, a professor of law at the University of Palestine, his father and two of his sons was announced in a Zionist bombing that targeted his home on Old Gaza Street in Jabalia on 5/15/2024.
It is noteworthy that on 7/13/2024, it was announced that Dr. Wahiba Ait Mazghat, from the Algerian state of Blida, was martyred in an Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip. The martyr works as a university professor and is the wife of the Palestinian professor Maher Abu Mutlaq, while the educational guide Jihad Shalalda, a resident of the town of Sa’ir, was martyred on 7/22/204.
Depriving students of their right to education:
The International Academy stated in its report that due to the Israeli aggression and genocide, the occupation has deprived about 39 thousand male and female students from taking the General Secondary Certificate Examination (Tawjihi), and about (278) s
chool buildings have been targeted and completely or partially destroyed, and they have been out of the scope of their educational mission, and damage has been inflicted on them out of (309) schools, while higher education institutions and all universities have been out of service as the occupation has completely or partially destroyed them, and the remaining schools have become shelters for tens of thousands of forcibly displaced persons, and there are more than 630 thousand male and female students who have been deprived of the educational process since the beginning of the aggression. Meanwhile, the occupation continues to arrest 55 high school students in the West Bank.
The report indicated that academic life in universities was disrupted, affecting about 88 thousand male and female students enrolled in various universities in the Gaza Strip, whether private or governmental, and that more than 31 buildings of these universities were destroyed, and more than 80% of them became unfit for continuing the uni
versity education process.
The report stated that according to a statement by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education in July, the number of students who were martyred in Gaza since the beginning of the aggression is about 10,000, while more than 14,600 students were injured in addition to 400 teachers. In the West Bank, 103 students were martyred and 511 others were injured, and about 400 students were arrested. The ongoing arrest campaigns come alongside the martyrdom of 430 high school students in Gaza, and 20 others from the West Bank during the current academic year, while Jerusalem is still being targeted in all its national components, including the Israelization of curricula and targeting school bags from teachers and students to schools.
Continuing to pursue university students by arresting them:
The report addressed the occupation authorities’ continued policy of pursuing students through arrests, which included arresting hundreds of them, abusing them, and then transferring them directly
to racist administrative detention. It targeted unionists and prominent student leaders at Birzeit University, An-Najah University, Hebron University, Polytechnic University, Al-Quds University, Arab American University, Khadouri University, Bethlehem University, Palestine Ahliya University, and others, including coordinators of student blocs and members of student union councils. The arrest campaigns also affected a group of female university students, some of whom are released prisoners. The occupation subjects them to harsh detention conditions, which has caused a significant academic loss ranging from one to three semesters for a number of students who are accused of participating in political activities and student union work, and who are subjected to abuse and torture in a manner that contravenes international and humanitarian norms and laws.
Source: Maan News Agency