The Israeli occupation army blew up the main building of Al-Israa University south of Gaza City on January 17, 2024. According to a statement issued by the university on January 18, 2024, the occupation forces occupied the main graduate and undergraduate studies building south of Gaza City for 70 days, and used it as a military base for its vehicles, a center for sniping unarmed civilians in the areas of Al-Rashid Street, Al-Maghraqa and Al-Zahraa, and a temporary detention center for interrogating citizens before transferring them to other detention centers.
According to the statement, before blowing up the building, the occupation forces looted about 3,000 rare artifacts from the university's national museum, which is licensed by the Ministry of Antiquities and is the first of its kind in the West Bank and Gaza. The Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities also accused the Israeli army of "looting them before blowing up the museum building to cover up the effects of their crime."
The occupation army also blew up the buildings of the first university hospital in the Gaza Strip, the buildings of medical and engineering laboratories, nursing laboratories, the media training studio, the courtroom of the Faculty of Law, and graduation halls. After looting their valuable contents, which have long been used by scientific students in various colleges to enrich their scientific research and carry out their curricular and extracurricular activities.
The university statement also said that the occupation planes bombed and destroyed the university's main mosque inside the southern campus. The cafeteria building was also blown up. The university's intermediate studies (diploma) headquarters in the northern Gaza Strip and the continuing education and vocational training headquarters in the Rimal neighborhood were also targeted and turned into shelters for displaced persons.
A video published by Israeli websites showed the occupation army blowing up a building at Israa University. It raised many questions from journalists and followers. The occupation army was forced to investigate the bombing, given that the bombing of such facilities requires the authorization of the chief of staff of the occupation army. As a result of the investigation, the occupation army announced on March 11, 2024, that the commander of the 99th Division, General Barak Hiram, had been formally reprimanded for blowing up Israa University without the necessary authorization. The occupation army had claimed that Hamas "used the university building and its surroundings for military activity against the occupation army." Hiram also claimed that "his forces felt threatened because of intelligence information that Hamas had a network of tunnels under the university, and he feared that its activists would ambush them." According to Army Radio, the commander of the Southern Command, Major General Yaron Finkelman, told Hiram after reprimanding him: "If you had submitted a request to demolish the university, I would have approved it."
