UN human rights experts strongly condemned the repeated attacks on UNRWA schools by the Israeli occupation forces in the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem on Tuesday, calling attacks on schools an “assault on children.”

In a statement, they warned that the targeting of such educational facilities may amount to a war crime under international law. Additionally, the UN experts reiterated their calls for accountability, pointing to the repeated violations of international humanitarian and human rights law in Gaza.

Since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, more than 180 UNRWA installations have reportedly been damaged, with several having been directly hit despite coordinates shared with Israeli authorities under the UN’s deconfliction mechanism.

The statement also said that on May 8, heavily armed Israeli forces stormed three UNRWA schools at Shu’fat refugee camp in East Jerusalem, while classes were in session, violently evicting over 550 Palestinian children, some as young as six, from their classrooms. One UNRWA staff member was detained, and by the end of the day all six UNRWA schools in East Jerusalem had been evacuated.

The experts stated: “As the schools stormed were UN premises, the harassment of staff and forcible removal of children from schools by Israeli soldiers also constitute a breach of the inviolability of UN facilities and violate the right to education.” The right to education is protected under Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, to which Israel and the State of Palestine are state parties.

Central to this is also Article 52 of the Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, which prohibits attacks on civilian objects unless they are being used for military purposes. Additionally, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court also classifies the intentional targeting of schools as a war crime. Israel is not a party to either legal instrument.

The statement by UN experts comes just four days after Human Rights Watch warned that Israel’s new war plan in Gaza may amount to “extermination,” and urged the international community to act to prevent further atrocities. Similarly, UN human rights experts recently urged the international community to act immediately to end the intensifying violence in Gaza. Earlier this month, EU High Representative and European Commission Vice President Kaja Kallas demanded that Israel allow humanitarian access to Gaza on a call with Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, amid Israel’s ongoing blockade of humanitarian aid.