SOUTH LEBANON—Across modern conflicts, the destruction of schools and universities has become a measurable indicator of wars that extend beyond military confrontation.

What unfolded in Gaza over the past two years illustrates how the systematic targeting of educational institutions can amount to an assault on a society’s intellectual foundation.

Recent developments in Iran now echo this pattern, reinforcing concerns expressed by international institutions that education itself is increasingly under attack. 

In Gaza, the Palestinian Ministry of Education reported that more than 4,327 students were killed and 7,819 injured, alongside 231 teachers and administrators killed and 756 wounded.

Infrastructure losses were equally severe: 281 government schools and 65 UNRWA schools sustained total or partial destruction. Approximately 90% of government school buildings suffered direct or indirect damage. 

Of Gaza’s 796 schools, the majority have been rendered unusable, while 75% of schools and universities were destroyed or damaged. Around 608,000 school students and 90,000 university students experienced educational disruption. 

Higher education suffered deep structural blows. Gaza’s 17 higher education institutions, serving roughly 87,000 students, were nearly all affected. In a report, The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor documents the killing of 94 university professors, including 17 full professors, 59 PhD holders, and 18 master’s degree holders.

Besides, the International Monetary Fund estimates losses exceeding $720 million, with about 70% of educational facilities sustaining structural damage. 

Documentation from human rights bodies described instances in which the Israeli military converted certain campuses into military positions before demolishing them, further compounding the devastation. 

This pattern has now extended beyond Palestine. In Iran, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has recently announced that an airstrike targeting a girls’ primary school in the city of Minab constituted a violation of international law. 

According to Iranian health bodies, the death toll from the strike rose from 153 to 170 students and staff members. 

UNESCO has stated that the killing of students in a place dedicated to learning represents a serious breach of the protections afforded to schools under international law, recalling obligations under United Nations Security Council Resolution 2601 to safeguard educational institutions and personnel.

The strike in Minab occurred amid escalating US–led Israeli military hostilities that have reportedly resulted in hundreds of additional casualties across Iran. 

UNESCO further expressed grave concern that continued military tensions in the region are undermining the right to education and placing students and teachers at extreme risk. 

When casualty figures reach into the thousands in Gaza and climb into the hundreds in a single Iranian school, the cumulative impact is unmistakable. 

Educational systems are not easily rebuilt; the loss of teachers, scholars, and infrastructure reverberates for generations. 

The tragedy of the children of Dahyan in Yemen—where a school bus strike killed dozens of schoolchildren—remains a stark reminder that when education spaces become targets, the objective extends beyond immediate military gain.

From Palestine to Iran, institutional documentation reveals a troubling pattern: the destruction of schools and universities weakens knowledge, fractures culture, and strikes at the very future of societies.