Israel’s relentless assault on Gaza has left more than 500 schools bombed, many reduced to rubble, in what Human Rights Watch describes as a deliberate and unlawful attack on civilian infrastructure. The report, released Thursday, warns of irreparable harm to Gaza’s children, as most targeted schools had doubled as shelters for displaced families, turning them into killing grounds.

Hundreds have been killed in these strikes, with thousands more deprived of safe spaces to learn or seek refuge. HRW says the scale of destruction could cripple Gaza’s education system for years, stripping an entire generation of its right to education and security. It calls for an immediate arms embargo on Israel and concrete action to uphold the UN Genocide Convention.

Since October, Israeli forces, backed by ongoing US support, have waged a campaign marked by mass killings, forced displacement, starvation, and the systematic demolition of homes and essential infrastructure, in defiance of global condemnation and International Court of Justice orders. With over 61,000 Palestinians killed, most of them women and children, and famine spreading under siege, Gaza’s future is being systematically erased, one school, one home, one life at a time.