Israeli forces occupied and vandalized schools across southern Lebanon, turning classrooms into military barracks, looting educational equipment, and defacing buildings with graffiti, according to a damning new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Under international law, schools, even if temporarily abandoned, retain protection as civilian infrastructure and are not to be repurposed for military use.
Acts committed by Israel during and after the military campaign against Hezbollah, constitute war crimes and have wreaked lasting damage on Lebanon’s already fragile education system, the report found.
By pillaging schools, Israeli forces committed apparent war crimes and put the education of students in Lebanon at risk, said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch.
The report, based on field visits to seven schools in the border villages of Yarine, Naqoura, Aita al-Shaab, Tayr Harfa, Ramieh, Aitaroun, and Bani Hayyan between January and March 2025, paints a disturbing picture of systematic military abuse.
HRW researchers documented destruction at five of the seven schools. These included Hebrew graffiti scrawled across whiteboards, smashed laboratory equipment, bullet-pocked walls, and stolen or destroyed school supplies.
In Yarine Intermediate Public School, once serving 170 students, HRW found not only significant physical damage but also clear evidence of Israeli encampment: Hebrew-labelled food wrappers, sleeping cots, damaged generators, and gutted classrooms.
Whiteboards bore the names of Israeli units, including the Golani Brigade, notorious for its involvement in abuses in occupied Palestine.
Researchers noted that computers donated by France and USAID were missing or destroyed, while the school’s generator had been overturned and burned.
Satellite images confirmed widespread destruction, and a video geolocated by HRW showed Israeli tanks parked directly in the schoolyard. At Naqoura Intermediate Public School, which previously served 300 students, the violations were equally grave.
Israeli soldiers had converted classrooms into living quarters, left behind trash, damaged desks, and smashed newly donated laptops.
Whiteboards were defaced with Hebrew messages, some mocking the destruction inflicted. In one room, military equipment and torn biology lab materials were strewn across the floor.
The principal of Naqoura school described the scene to HRW: They seem to have focused on technological equipment in the school. They destroyed them. Our interactive boards, LCD projectors, they were destroyed.
Some they tried to forcefully remove, others they shot. The TV’s were destroyed… We also had storage rooms that were locked; those were broken into and destroyed.
Three other schools in Aita al-Shaab, Tayr Harfa, and Ramieh were also damaged, likely due to ground fighting. However, evidence of Israeli military presence was still found, including Hebrew graffiti, food packaging, and remnants of demolition tools.
In Tayr Harfa, HRW documented razed agricultural land and roads near the school, and broken water infrastructure.
Human Rights Watch could not always verify responsibility for missing or destroyed materials, especially in towns that had been evacuated.
However, in schools where occupation could be clearly established, the evidence of deliberate destruction and looting met the threshold for war crimes under international humanitarian law.
Israel has not endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration, an international commitment to protect education during conflict.
HRW is calling on Israel’s allies to pressure the state to cease attacks on civilian infrastructure, including schools, and to prohibit the military use of such institutions.
Human Rights Watch is urging international donors and humanitarian agencies to assist in rebuilding schools in southern Lebanon and for Lebanon’s government to grant jurisdiction to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate and prosecute war crimes committed on its territory since October 2023.
Urgent reconstruction efforts are needed so that tens of thousands of displaced residents can begin returning to their homes and villages and children can fully access their right to education.
Just as importantly, Lebanon’s government should ensure justice for abuses and crimes, including by granting jurisdiction to the ICC.
Middle East Monitor / ABC Flash Point News 2025.
That is what the Zionist swamp has been doing since their arrival in the Middle East. Invading, occupying, confiscating Arab territories is their main goal.
They can’t invade or beat Iran so they let out their anger and aggression on those that have smaller armies and less weapons.
Ya, like women and children: They don’t shoot back….easy….just drop the US made bombs on them. And, voila, it is a “war”…..