- Israeli forces occupied schools in southern Lebanon during hostilities between September and November 2024 and in the following weeks, used some of them as barracks, and appear to have intentionally vandalized, pillaged, and destroyed school property.
- The hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah have had a devastating impact on children’s access to education and pillaging of at least two of the schools appears to amount to war crimes.
- International donors and aid agencies should support the Lebanese government to ensure the equitable reconstruction of schools in southern Lebanon. Lebanon should also provide jurisdiction to the International Criminal Court to investigate and prosecute atrocity crimes since October 2023.
(Beirut) – Israeli ground forces occupied schools across southern Lebanon during hostilities with Hezbollah between September and November 2024 and in the weeks that followed and, in at least two schools, appear to have intentionally vandalized, pillaged, and destroyed school property, Human Rights Watch said today. Many of their acts amount to war crimes.
With children across Lebanon facing more than six years of significant disruptions to their education since the 2019 economic crisis, Lebanon and donor governments should prioritize rebuilding critical infrastructure, including schools, in a transparent, accountable, and corruption-free manner.
“Many of southern Lebanon’s border villages have been razed to the ground, and where schools were left standing, several had been vandalized, and at least two had been ransacked by Israeli forces,” said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch. “By pillaging schools, Israeli forces committed apparent war crimes and put the education of students in Lebanon at risk.”
More than 100 schools across southern Lebanon have been destroyed or “heavily damaged” since the start of hostilities in October 2023, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Human Rights Watch visited seven schools in southern Lebanon between January and March 2025 in the border villages and towns of Aita al-Shaab, Tayr Harfa, Naqoura, Yarine, Ramieh, Aitaroun, and Bani Hayyan, documenting damage and destruction to the schools as well as the surrounding villages.
Human Rights Watch found evidence—including Israeli food items, other trash with Hebrew writing, and Hebrew graffiti on school walls and classroom boards—indicating that Israeli forces occupied five of seven of the schools visited, all except for the schools in Aitaroun and Bani Hayyan, which had also been damaged.
Human Rights Watch spoke with principals and administrators, who did not wish to be identified by name, about the impacts on children’s access to education. Human Rights Watch also spoke with two international humanitarian organizations that also documented damage and destruction to schools in Lebanon and other impacts on education.
The five schools that were occupied had damage from small arms fire and explosive weapons. All had graffiti and writing in Hebrew and English on walls and classroom boards. In Yarine and Naqoura, the evidence suggested that Israeli forces purposefully destroyed and pillaged the schools, which are war crimes. Withdrawing Israeli forces left behind damaged and ransacked classrooms and administrative offices. Much of the school equipment that remained, including computers and classroom equipment, was destroyed or damaged.
The schools in Aita al-Shaab, Tayr Harfa, and Ramieh were significantly damaged, most likely as a result of ground fighting. The Israeli army said that they struck the school in Tayr Harfa because Hezbollah operatives were using the school building. Israeli forces later occupied it. School principals told Human Rights Watch that school property was missing. However, researchers could not attribute responsibility for the missing school property in light of the fighting that took place at or around the schools, in addition to the fact that these villages and towns had been largely emptied out of residents since the outbreak of hostilities on October 8, 2023.
Dated Hebrew graffiti found in Naqoura Intermediate Public School suggests that the Israeli military continued to occupy some of the schools weeks after the November 2024 ceasefire.
On May 16, Human Rights Watch sent a letter outlining its findings and posing questions to the Israeli military. A military spokesperson responded that the Israeli military “is sometimes required to operate from within civilian buildings for varying periods of time, based on operational needs and the circumstances on the ground.” They said that “vandalism of civilian property does not align with the IDF’s values and constitutes a violation of its regulations,” and that “exceptional incidents raising concerns of deviation from IDF orders and expected conduct will be addressed accordingly.”
Human Rights Watch sent a letter to Hezbollah on June 4, including asking whether they had occupied schools or engaged in ground fighting at or near schools, but did not receive a response.
Serious violations of the laws of war committed by individuals with criminal intent—that is, deliberately or recklessly—are war crimes. War crimes include a wide array of offenses such as deliberate, indiscriminate, and disproportionate attacks on civilian objects and pillage. Schools and other cultural property, even if public property, are specifically protected against “[s]eizure…, destruction or willful damage,” which are war crimes.
In 2015, Lebanon endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration, an international political commitment that aims to protect education during times of war by strengthening the prevention of, and response to, attacks on students, teachers, schools, and universities. Under the declaration, governments pledge that their militaries will refrain from using schools and universities for any purpose in support of a military effort.
Israel has not endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration. Israel’s allies should press the Israeli government to immediately cease deliberate, indiscriminate, and disproportionate attacks against civilians and civilian objects, including schools, and avoid using educational facilities for military purposes.
International donors and humanitarian agencies should support the Lebanese government to ensure the timely reconstruction of schools, along with other critical civilian infrastructure. To ensure accountability and justice for grave abuses, the Lebanese government should provide jurisdiction to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate and prosecute international crimes committed on Lebanese 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,” Kaiss said. “Just as importantly, Lebanon’s government should ensure justice for abuses and crimes, including by granting jurisdiction to the ICC.”
The most recent outbreak of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel began on October 8, 2023. On October 9, the school year for public schools in Lebanon officially began, but many schools in Lebanon’s border villages were forced to close their doors in light of the cross-border attacks. Tens of thousands of people were subsequently displaced from Lebanon’s border villages, which remained largely empty throughout the hostilities.
Between October 2023 and November 2024, the hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon, displaced nearly 1 million people, and had a devastating impact on children’s access to education.
On September 30, 2024, Israeli ground forces invaded southern Lebanon and subsequently occupied dozens of border villages. Between October 1 and October 7, 2024, the Israeli military called on residents of more than 100 towns and villages in southern Lebanon to evacuate to nearly 60 kilometers north of Lebanon’s border with Israel.
Many border villages were the sites of active fighting between Israeli forces and Hezbollah, in addition to controlled demolitions by Israeli forces. After the November 27, 2024 ceasefire, Israeli forces continued to occupy many border villages, prohibiting residents from returning and carrying out significant destruction before eventually withdrawing.
Israeli ground forces remain at five locations in southern Lebanon, and, as of July 2025, Israeli attacks since the November 2024 ceasefire have reportedly killed at least 260 people in Lebanon, including at least 71 civilians, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). More than 82,000 people remained displaced as of May 2025, according to the International Organization for Migration.
The repair and reconstruction of the over 100 school facilities that sustained sweeping damage and destruction as a result of the fighting, as well as other basic infrastructure, will require significant resources and time, likely leaving many children without access to education in the meantime.
All school principals and administrators interviewed said that their schools contained school supplies and equipment provided by the USAID-funded program, Quality Instruction Toward Access and Basic Education Improvement (QITABI).
Destruction of, or serious damage to, schools can have devastating impacts on children, who often have to travel further, in what may be an insecure environment, to access education, often in an overcrowded school. Some students may not be able to continue their education due to lack of available facilities, difficulties and costs related to transportation, insecurity, trauma, and other factors.
Destruction of schools affects girls disproportionately because they face the greatest harm from difficult access to schools. Parents may be more sensitive to security risks related to further travel, including sexual and gender-based violence, and discriminatory social norms can encourage the deprioritization of girls’ education.
Yarine Intermediate Public School
Human Rights Watch visited Yarine Intermediate Public School on March 6, 2025. The principal said that the school previously served 170 students, from Yarine and other villages, from kindergarten to sixth grade. The outbreak of cross-border fighting forced the school to close on October 9, 2023, and caused staff and students to flee the village, the principal said.
Evidence reviewed by Human Rights Watch, including photographs and videos of damage, indicates that Israeli forces likely purposefully destroyed and pillaged the school’s property, which amounts to war crimes.
Human Rights Watch found evidence suggesting that Israeli forces occupied the village between October 20, 2024, and January 26, 2025, and also occupied Yarine Intermediate Public School, though researchers could not ascertain the exact dates.
Satellite imagery indicates that after October 20, controlled demolitions expanded, resulting in the near-total destruction of Yarine village in less than 10 days. A video published by the Israeli military on October 25, first publicly geolocated by GeoConfirmed and confirmed by Human Rights Watch, shows Israeli forces operating in Yarine less than 300 meters from the school. Photographs posted on social media between November 19 and 25, two days before the November 27 ceasefire went into effect, showed Israeli soldiers at the school. Researchers also found Hebrew writing on a classroom whiteboard dated November 21, 2024.
Between November 22 and 26, 2024, Hezbollah issued five statements, indicating that it had, on several occasions, conducted drone attacks against Israeli forces and military equipment in the village.
Residents were reportedly only able to return after the partial withdrawal of the Israeli army from some border villages and towns on January 26, 2025.
When Human Rights Watch visited the school in March, researchers found remnants of packaging for food items and other trash in Hebrew script on school grounds as well as a military sleeping cot, indicating Israeli forces had likely encamped at the school.
Empty wooden crates for ammunition—including for recoilless rifle rounds, a weapon not found in the Israeli military’s arsenal but commonly used by Hezbollah and other armed groups—were also apparently left behind on the school grounds. Researchers verified several photographs shared on social media in October and November 2024 showing Israeli soldiers in Yarine with weapons that appear to have been confiscated from Hezbollah. Human Rights Watch could not confirm when and by whom the boxes were discarded at the school.
Human Rights Watch reviewed and geolocated photographs of Israeli soldiers posted on social media by a Palestinian journalist, Younis Tirawi, on November 25, showing two Israeli tanks and a Humvee vehicle parked in the school yard. In the photographs, the southern and western facades of the school appear to be largely undamaged, although windows are broken, and pockmarks from small arms and light weapons fire, including explosive weapons, appear visible on the school’s facade, indicating there might have been ground fighting at the school.
There also appears to be small arms fire damage on some inner hallway walls. Soldiers appear to have tied biology lab material, including a miniature human skeleton model, on the front of one of their vehicles. At least two tanks and one military truck are parked in the school’s entrance. The photographs also show Israeli soldiers sitting in a school classroom, with military equipment laid across classroom tables, while other soldiers write on the school’s whiteboards.
When Human Rights Watch researchers visited the school, it had been significantly damaged and partially burned. When researchers visited the classroom depicted in the photos, they found chairs, tables and walls significantly damaged. Parts of the eastern wall were missing, and broken cinderblocks, files, and other classroom material covered the ground. A poster in the classroom indicated that school material, including chairs, tables, and 10 computers, had been donated by France.
The school’s southern and western outer facades, columns, and hallway, on both the ground floor and the first floor, had been torn down. All sides of the school’s outer facades were damaged. Rooms on the ground floor and second floor on the school’s western side appear to have been burned, and the generator just north of the school, which had supplied the school with electricity, had been burned and turned on its side along with the heavy metal caging that housed it and a nearby electricity pole. The tiled canopy in the school’s yard, which appeared undamaged in photographs shared by soldiers on or before November 25, was also torn down.
Researchers found Hebrew writing on the classroom whiteboard, including a phrase that mentioned the Golani Brigade, an Israeli army unit linked to abuses. The principal said that Israeli forces took mattresses used for nap times in the nursery up to the second floor and had “turned some of the classrooms into bedrooms.”
A photograph shared online on November 19 and geolocated by Human Rights Watch shows an Israeli reservist identifiable as likely being from the Golani Brigade, Battalion 13, based on photographs from unit events he had posted online, inside the intermediate school along with another solider.
The photo shows the two soldiers posing in front of a white and blue wall showing a logo for the Golani Brigade, Battalion 13, Platoon B, including the names of soldiers from Battalion 13 killed in Israel on October 7, 2023, and later in Gaza, with text reading: “In memory of the Platoon’s fallen.” Researchers saw this same graffiti and list of names on the blue and white wall inside the school on March 6, 2025.
Other whiteboard text, dated November 21, 2024, said a soldier finished his military service there. The name matches an Israeli reservist who says he’s part of an “elite unit of the IDF” and appears to be affiliated with the Duvdevan Unit, an elite Israeli commando unit that has also been linked to abuses, based on a patch on his uniform. On November 21, he posted on Instagram showing himself in uniform, his weapon raised, saying he had finished his “third round.”
The principal said she had visited the school on January 27, 2025, one day after the Israeli army withdrew from the village, and found that the school’s 10 laptops had been stolen. She said that six of them had been donated by the USAID-funded QITABI program and another two by the French battalion of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). She said that desktop computers in the school’s “computer room” had all been destroyed, along with a scanner and printer worth US$5,000. Human Rights Watch could not confirm who was responsible for the missing laptops.
The principal said that the school would need to be “rebuilt from the ground up.”
Satellite imagery collected on January 30, three days after the principal visited, shows large amounts of debris scattered across the school yard. Clusters of buildings in the immediate vicinity appear demolished, and nearly the entire village of Yarine has been reduced to rubble.
Naqoura Intermediate Public School
Naqoura Intermediate Public School, less than three kilometers from Lebanon’s border with Israel, served 300 students from kindergarten through ninth grade, according to the school principal. It closed on October 9, 2023. Human Rights Watch visited the school on January 31, 2025, and found clear evidence that Israeli forces had occupied the school, damaged and destroyed school equipment, and damaged the school premises.
Human Rights Watch could not ascertain the exact dates during which the school was occupied. One of the Hebrew phrases found in the school was dated December 22, 2024, suggesting that Israeli forces may have been there several weeks after the November 27 ceasefire.
Between May and November 2024, the Israeli military published several statements on social media saying it had struck Hezbollah targets in Naqoura. One video published May 16 and verified by Human Rights Watch shows an airstrike on a house less than 150 meters from the school. Videos posted on social media between March and June 2024, also geolocated by GeoConfirmed, show at least six airstrikes on buildings within a 300-meter radius of the school.
Human Rights Watch reviewed photographs and videos posted online, as well as statements issued by the Israeli military, Hezbollah, and UNIFIL, that indicate that ground combat took place in the village. In statements on November 6 and 12, 2024, Hezbollah said it attacked Israeli forces in Naqoura.
In a November 26, 2024 statement, the Israeli military said that it struck Hezbollah targets in Naqoura. In a statement on December 27, one month after the ceasefire, the Israeli military said it “identified military equipment and weapons storage facilities embedded inside civilian buildings” in Naqoura and showed photographs of apparently confiscated Hezbollah weapons. The Israeli army reportedly withdrew from Naqoura on January 7, 2025.
The evidence of Israeli forces’ occupation and vandalization of the school, including in the weeks after the ceasefire, suggests that Israeli forces purposefully destroyed school property, a war crime.
At the school, researchers found Israeli food supplies labeled in Hebrew and trash throughout classrooms and on school grounds, as well as military equipment in some classrooms. In one classroom that appeared to have been a sleeping area, researchers found mattresses, food, and military equipment. Messages in Hebrew and English on the whiteboard included one in Hebrew that read: “Good Saturday people of Lebanon. Thank Nasrallah for all the destruction he brought upon you,” a reference to Hassan Nasrallah, the former Hezbollah leader. In another classroom, researchers found destroyed and damaged equipment, including laptops that had been removed from their manufacturer boxes and smashed next to Israeli food packaging. The principal said that the laptops were “brand new” and had been donated recently by QITABI.
The school principal said that the equipment had been destroyed, lab materials had been thrown on the ground and “ruined,” and the school’s storage rooms had been broken into and their contents destroyed. Television screens in several classrooms appeared to have been deliberately punctured. Damaged desks had stickers indicating they were donated by Belgium.
“They seem to have focused on technological equipment in the school,” the principal said. “They destroyed them. Our interactive boards, LCD projectors, they were destroyed. Some they tried to forcefully remove, others they shot. The TVs were destroyed… We also had storage rooms that were locked; those were broken into and destroyed.” Evidence examined by Human Rights Watch researchers confirmed her account.
Human Rights Watch also found evidence that some agricultural land in front of the school had been razed. Trees had been torn down, and bulldozer tracks ran through the schoolyard. Satellite imagery analysis by Human Rights Watch confirmed that the land was razed and nearby houses were destroyed between December 20 and 25, with further destruction observed in multiple areas around Naqoura until at least the beginning of January 2025, before Israeli forces withdrew.
A video shared on Telegram on December 20, 2024, geolocated and verified by Human Rights Watch, shows an Israeli military armored bulldozer razing rows of orange trees in an orchard 450 meters northeast of the school. An explosion can be heard as three Israeli soldiers stand watch. One soldier laughs as smoke billows nearby. The Telegram post thanked “Brigade 226, Battalion 9255” for their service. A soldier in the video wears a patch, identified by researchers as worn by members of the Israeli military’s reserve 226th Paratroop Brigade, Battalion 9255, on his uniform.
Schools in Aita al-Shaab, Tayr Harfa, and Ramieh
The three schools researchers visited in Aita al-Shaab, Tayr Harfa, and Ramieh were significantly damaged, most likely as a result of ground fighting at or near the schools. In all three schools, researchers found evidence of Israeli military occupation.
While school principals and officials said that school material and equipment were missing, Human Rights Watch could not determine who was responsible because of the fighting and the fact that that these villages and towns have been largely empty since the outbreak of hostilities.
At the Aita al-Shaab Secondary Public School, Human Rights Watch researchers found significant amounts of trash, including food items and water bottles, labeled with Hebrew writing, as well as boxes that appear to have previously contained belted 7.62x51mm rifle cartridges. They also found items used in demolition systems, including a “shock tube” and an igniter, which may have been used in the controlled demolition of buildings surrounding the school.
Human Rights Watch found one used, partially intact demolition initiation system bearing a lot number showing that it was of US origin and produced in early 2023, in addition to Hebrew graffiti on the school walls. The principal said that the equipment for the chemistry and biology lab, which had been funded by USAID, had also been destroyed. Human Rights Watch also verified photographs sent by the principal showing dozens of padded chairs in an auditorium, which he said had also been donated by UNIFIL, that appear to have been deliberately damaged. He said they looked like they had been “slashed with a knife.” Human Rights Watch could not verify who was responsible.
At Tayr Harfa Intermediate Public School, researchers found evidence that the land and road surrounding the school were razed by a bulldozer, damaging the road, agricultural land, and underground water infrastructure surrounding the school. Broken water pipes, dug-up gravel, and trash left by the military were strewn outside the school. Researchers found Israeli wine boxes, food material, empty wooden ammunition crates—including for 800 US-produced linked 7.62x51mm cartridges for use by a machine gun—and metal ammunition cans.
Inside the school, researchers found water bottles, food material, and trash with Hebrew labels. Graffiti in Hebrew on classroom walls had names of people—possibly soldiers—who had been in the school, timetables, drone schedules, and observation logs. Other graffiti included song lyrics, expletives in English, and Hebrew writing memorializing fallen soldiers from the Golani Brigade’s 51st Battalion who were killed in Lebanon in November, saying “May God avenge” them.
The principal, who said he was one of the last people to leave the school on October 9, 2023, and one of the first to re-enter the school after the Israeli military’s withdrawal from the village in January 2025, said that 12 LCD projectors donated by USAID were missing. He said that more than 20 computer desktops, 18 laptops, and all printing machines had been destroyed. Some of the destroyed equipment had stickers indicating that they were donated by USAID. Human Rights Watch, however, could not verify who was responsible for the destruction of equipment or looting.
At Ramieh Public School, researchers found Israeli food material, water bottles, trash, and Hebrew graffiti, in addition to Israeli military pamphlets with instructions on how to heat prepackaged food. Hebrew writing on walls and whiteboards also noted Hebrew names apparently of Israeli individuals—possibly soldiers—but with no rank or unit names. Other graffiti referenced the Golani Brigade.
All three schools were significantly damaged as a result of ground fighting and airstrikes at or near the schools. Researchers were unable to verify if Hezbollah fighters were inside or immediately surrounding the school during this time.
