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Working Group survey also reported that schoolchildren,youth and teachers experienced Israelimilitary harassment or violence while en route to andfrom school, and 31 per cent indicated that studentsand teachers had to cross at least one military checkpointto reach their schools, which affected more than2,500 children each day. 969 Sixteen per cent ofchildren in the communities surveyed claimed to haveexperienced delays and harassment by military andsecurity personnel while crossing these checkpointsor the separation barrier. 970Military use of schoolsThe UN found evidence of the military use of schools inthe West Bank in 2011 and 2012. For example, in March2011, the Israeli military used a school in the village ofAwarta as a detention and interrogation centre for twoweeks after five members of an Israeli family werekilled, allegedly by Palestinian youths. 971 In April 2011,Israeli forces broke into a Nablus school and went onthe roof to provide security to a nearby area thatsettlers were visiting at night. 972 In 2012, there weretwo incidents of schools being occupied by the IDF. 973In one of the incidents, according to the InternationalMiddle East Media Centre, Israeli soldiers used aschool east of Jenin city as a military post andmonitoring tower in November 2012. 974Attacks on higher educationHigher education was affected by similar violence. InGaza, during Operation Cast Lead, 14 of the 15 highereducation institutions were damaged, with six directlytargeted, according to the Al Mezan Centre for HumanRights in Gaza. Three colleges and six universitybuildings were fully destroyed. The total damage wasestimated at USD 21.1 million. 975 Seven universities inGaza were also damaged during Israeli airstrikes inNovember 2012. 976University students and faculty were injured orarrested by Palestinian and Israeli forces. In oneincident, Gazan police entered the campus of Al-AzharUniversity in Gaza and attacked protesting students,allegedly beating them with clubs. 977 According tomedia and human rights reports, Israeli security forcesarrested 20 university students from 2009 to 2012. 978For example, Israeli forces reportedly detained a 20-EDUCATION UNDER ATTACK 2014year-old university student from Tulkarem city becauseof his graduate research project on the construction ofa pilotless plane, which they said posed a threat toIsrael’s national security. 979 One academic who calledfor a one-state solution was detained without chargeby the Israeli authorities in 2011 and was still beingheld two years later. 980 At least nine academics anduniversity staff were reportedly detained 981 by thePalestinian Authority – including eight from An-NajahUniversity accused of being affiliated with Hamas andattempting to start a new university in the WestBank. 982Palestinian students and professors experiencedrestrictions on movement that negatively impactedtheir educational activities, including a blanket Israeliban on travel for Gazan students and professors tostudy or lecture at Palestinian universities in the WestBank. In October 2009, the Palestinian interiorministry and an NGO campaigning for freedom ofmovement reported that 838 Gazan students whowere formally offered places and/or enrolled at foreignuniversities were unable to leave Gaza because oftravel restrictions and bureaucracy. 983 Hamas alsobarred seven students from travelling to the UnitedStates for a year of study under a US programme, citingworries over their supervision. 984Attacks on education in 2013A wide range of types of attack on educationcontinued to be reported in 2013. These includeddemolition orders against primary and secondaryschools in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, 985settlers stoning schools and students 986 and schoolbuses carrying students, 987 acts of intimidation bysettlers, the use of tear gas in and near Palestinianschools by Israeli police, and shootings of students byIsraeli soldiers. 988 Police found military weapons andexplosives stashed in two schools in Israel. 989 Therewere also reports that the Ministry of Education inGaza was organizing military-style training for schoolchildren aged 15-17, with training provided by theHamas National Guard and militants with Hamas’sarmed wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, and that thePrime Minister was planning to extend it to 12-yearolds.990153