From 7 October 2023 to late March 2024, the United Nations reported multiple airstrikes on more than 200 educational facilities, including universities and schools, by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the Gaza Strip.
UNESCO reported that at least 22 sites, including mosques, churches, historical houses, universities, and archives, were damaged or destroyed as a result of multiple Israeli attacks.
[25] In March 2024, Al Jazeera reported that Israeli forces made a pattern of killing entire families by targeting homes where they had taken shelter.
[30] The New York Times' analysis of the Israeli military's actions shows that since November, Israeli-controlled demolitions have destroyed hundreds of buildings, including mosques, schools, and entire sections of residential neighborhoods.
The spokesperson of the Israeli army stated the reason for these controlled demolitions is the location and destruction of terrorist infrastructures embedded inside buildings in civilian areas, adding that sometimes entire neighborhoods serve as "combat complexes" for Hamas.
Hugh Lovatt, a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations, claimed that Israel is "deliberately and methodically destroying the civil societies and infrastructure needed to govern and stabilize Gaza after the war”.
[34][35][36] Italian historian Lorenzo Kamel said Israel wants to make the Gaza Strip uninhabitable by dropping tens of thousands of tons of bombs and targeting civilian infrastructure including schools, universities, hospitals, bakeries, shops, farmland and greenhouses, water stations, sewage systems, power plants, solar panels, and generators.