Israeli forces’ deadly attacks on schools sheltering Palestinian civilians highlight the absence of safe places for Gaza’s displaced people and make part of Israel’s horrendous slaughter of civilians, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.

In  a report entitled “Gaza: Israeli School Strikes Magnify Civilian Peril”, HRW said that since October 2023, Israeli authorities have carried out hundreds of strikes on schools sheltering displaced Palestinians, including unlawfully indiscriminate attacks using US munitions, that have killed hundreds of civilians and damaged or destroyed virtually all of Gaza’s schools.

“Recent Israeli strikes on schools-turned-shelters are part of Israeli forces’ current military offensive that is demolishing much of Gaza’s remaining civilian infrastructure, displacing again hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, and worsening the already dire humanitarian situation”, said the report.

“Governments, including the United States, which has provided weapons used in unlawful attacks, should impose an arms embargo on the Israeli government and take other urgent measures to enforce the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention)”, it added.

“Israeli strikes on schools sheltering displaced families provide a window into the widespread carnage that Israeli forces have carried out in Gaza,” said Gerry Simpson, associate crisis, conflict and arms director at Human Rights Watch. “Other governments should not tolerate this horrendous slaughter of Palestinian civilians merely seeking safety.”

Human Rights Watch investigated Israeli attacks that struck the Khadija girls’ school in Deir al-Balah on July 27, 2024, killing at least 15 people, and al-Zeitoun C school in al-Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City on September 21, 2024, killing at least 34 people. Human Rights Watch found no evidence of a military target at either school.

These findings were based on a review of satellite imagery, photos, and videos of the attacks and their aftermath, social media material relating to men known to have died in the two strikes, and phone interviews with two people who witnessed the aftermath of the Khadija school strike and another present during the attack on al-Zeitoun C school.

The Israeli authorities have not publicly provided information about the attacks that Human Rights Watch documented, including details about the intended target or any precautions taken to minimize harm to civilians. They did not respond to a July 15 letter summarizing Human Rights Watch findings on these strikes and requesting specific information.

The human rights organization said that “the absence of a military target in the Khadija and al-Zeitoun school strikes would make the attacks unlawfully indiscriminate in violation of international humanitarian law. Schools and other educational facilities are civilian objects and protected from attack. They lose that protection when used for military purposes or are occupied by military forces. The use of schools to house civilians does not alter their legal status.”

Between July 1 and 10, 2025, Israeli forces struck at least 10 schools-turned-shelters, including some that had been damaged previously, reportedly killing 59 people and displacing again dozens of families, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) reported that about one million displaced people in Gaza had sheltered in schools amid the hostilities, and that as of July 18, at least 836 people sheltering in schools had been killed and at least 2,527 injured.

The most recent assessment by the Occupied Palestinian Territory Education Cluster found that 97 percent of school buildings in Gaza (547 out of 564) have sustained some level of damage, including 462 (76 percent) that were “directly hit”, and that 518 (92 percent) require “full reconstruction or major rehabilitation work to become functional again.”

HRW warned that the Israeli attacks have denied civilians safe access to shelter and will contribute to the disruption of access to education for many years, as repair and reconstruction of schools can require significant resources and time, with a significant negative impact on children, parents, and teachers.

The Israeli publications +972Magazine and Local Call reported on July 24 that the Israeli military set up “a special strike cell to systematically identify schools, which are referred to as ‘centers of gravity,’ in order to bomb them, claiming that Hamas operatives hide among the hundreds of civilians.” The report noted that “double tap” strikes—second attacks in the same location designed to hit survivors of the initial strike and first responders—have “become particularly common in recent months when Israel bombs schools in Gaza.”

HRW urged all world governments to suspend arms transfers to Israel, given the clear risk that the arms might be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian law.

It added that the US government’s provision of arms to Israel, which have repeatedly been used in strikes on schools-turned-shelters and to carry out apparent war crimes, has made the United States complicit in their unlawful use.