Ramallah, July 3 (RHC)--  Israel has killed more than 8,570 Palestinian students in the besieged Gaza Strip since October, a report says.  The Zionist regime has also killed 100 pupils in the occupied West Bank ever since.

The Wafa news agency, citing the Palestinian Education Ministry, reported on Tuesday that over 490 teachers and administrators were also killed and more than 3,400 wounded in both Gaza and the West Bank.

Hundreds of educational institutions, including 65 run by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), were also bombed and vandalized.

Experts have labeled the trend “scholasticide.”

Al-Aqsa University, established in 1955, was the oldest governmental higher education institution in Gaza until Israel damaged and destroyed its campuses in Gaza city and Khan Younis.  It was one of the largest universities in Gaza, offering bachelor’s degrees and postgraduate studies across applied sciences, arts, media, sports, finance and IT.

In January, a series of videos shared on social media showed the gateway to the Khan Younis campus partially collapsed.  The next month, reports emerged that two of the Gaza City campus buildings had been shelled and Israeli soldiers were shooting at civilians sheltering there.

Similar damage has been reported in the remaining 12 accredited universities in Gaza.

Youssef Salam is a legal researcher at the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, an independent, non-profit organisation based in Geneva.   He said: “It's clear from the beginning of this military operation that the Israeli army had a plan to strategically strike all educational facilities.”

“Schools and universities and homes are categorized as civilian locations, by international law, and they are prohibited from being targeted.”

The student death toll is thought to be much higher due to communication and mobility issues along the strip and the thousands of people who remain missing or unaccounted for.