Islamic University of Gaza

A copy of the original IUG foundation document, displayed at the IUG museum (2023)

No universities or higher education institutions existed in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip until 1972.[15][16] Before then, Palestinian high school graduates sought higher education abroad, mostly in Egyptian and Jordanian universities. However, the restrictions on student movements after the Israeli occupation of West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967, the declining economic conditions, and the increasing limitations on the admission of Palestinian students to Arab universities changed this situation.[17] As such, local initiatives led by local elders and social and nationalist leaders sought to establish national higher education institutions in the occupied territories, often building on already existing schools and colleges.[17]

Sheikh Mohammed Awwad (2nd from the right), chairman of the IUG board of trustees, during a graduation ceremony (1986).

Sheikh Mohammad Awwad, then head of the Gaza Chapter of the Azhari Institute, led the Islamic University's founding committee. On 12 April 1978, the committee issued a decree to establish the university, which was composed of three faculties: Sharia, Usool-Deen, and Arabic Language (which later evolved into the Faculty of Arts).[18] The university was later inaugurated in November 1978 as an independent, nonprofit, gender-segregated university, which was also the first higher education institution in the Gaza Strip.[19] The Faculty of Education was founded in 1980, while the Faculties of Commerce and Arts were founded the following year. The Faculties of Nursing and Engineering were founded in 1993. In 2005, the Faculty of Information Technology was founded, followed by the Faculty of Medicine in 2006.[18]

The Islamic University was subjected to the different Israeli restrictions against Palestinian universities, which the Palestinians perceived as centres of political struggle and nation-building.[17] The establishment of the Faculty of Nursing, intended in 1986, was denied by Israeli authorities until 1993. Building permits were stalled and limited. Also, similar to other universities, the Islamic University was subjected to severe restrictions on academic freedom such as limitations of staff movement and Military Order 854. It was also issued with a temporary license that required annual renewal, and denied tax exemptions.[17][20]

The main campus in Gaza city

The Al Zahra campus (Faculty of Medicine and the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital)

The Islamic University of Gaza is considered a large university (uniRank enrollment range: 15,000-19,999 students).[21] The main campus is located in Gaza City, with branch campuses in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip and Al Zahra in the middle of Gaza Strip. The total area of the three campuses is 325817 square meters. The Al Zahra campus is home to the Faculty of Medicine and the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital.[21][16]

The Islamic University of Gaza is home to eleven faculties:[22]

IUG is a recognized member of twelve regional and international associations and networks of higher education:[21]

• Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation
• Association of Arab Universities (AAU)
• Community of Mediterranean Universities (CMU)
• Eurasian Universities Union (EURAS)
• Euro-Mediterranean Universities Consortium TETHYS
• Federation of the Universities of the Islamic World (FUIW)
• International Association of Universities (IAU)
• Mediterranean Universities Union (UNIMED)
• Peace Programme
• Réseau Méditerranéen des Ecoles d'Ingénieurs (RMEI)
• The Euro-Mediterranean University (EMUNI)
• Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean Academic Network (BSEMAN)

The university has also developed partnerships with 142 higher education institutions around the world.[16]

The university has accepted donations from institutions such as the Arab Student Aid International, United Palestinian Appeal, Islamic Relief, the British Council, the World Bank, USAID,[40] the Islamic Development Bank and Human Appeal International.

The university has accepted donations from the Middle East Children's Alliance for its rebuilding efforts.[41]

In February 2007, during the height of fighting between Hamas and Fatah, the dominating party in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the Palestinian Authority (PA) Presidential Guards and Fatah militiamen stormed the Islamic University campus using mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, setting the library building and parts of the computer center and science building on fire.[42][43][44]

Just after midnight on 28/29 December 2008 local time, the university was bombed in six air strikes by the Israeli Air Force during the 2008 Gaza War. Palestinian academics claim that the attack destroyed 74 labs, including, Microbiology, Hematology, Genetics, Medical Technology and Medical Chemistry Labs, Physics Labs, Environmental and Earth Sciences Labs, Biology Labs, Biotechnology Labs, Optics Labs, Chemistry Labs, Engineering Labs, and Engineering and IT buildings.[41]

An Israeli army spokeswoman told The Chronicle of Higher Education that university facilities were being used by Hamas to develop and store weapons including Qassam rockets used to target Israeli civilians. Hamas denied the Israeli allegation.[45][46] Human Rights Watch said that Israel's justification "did not address why a second strike demolished the women's quarters".[47] The United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict examined the incident and disputed the Israeli claims, concluding that: "the mission also saw the destruction caused at the Islamic University and in other university buildings that were destroyed or damaged. These were civilian, educational buildings and the Mission did not find any information about their use as a military facility or their contribution to a military effort that might have made them a legitimate target in the eyes of the Israeli armed forces."[48]

In its response to the strike, the university announced in a press release on January 21, 2009, that the university is an independent institution of higher education in Gaza and the largest among the Palestinian institutions that serve 20,000 students as an accredited member of several regional and international academic associations and organization. According to the press release, the attack destroyed the Science and Engineering buildings and damaged several others. The university called upon academics, local, regional and international higher educational and human rights institutions to speak out against the attacks.[49]

Several international academic institutions have proceeded to express their commitment to support IUG and other universities in Gaza. The International Association of Universities, of which IUG is a member, has claimed to have written to the university to express its deep concern over the effects of the war, and to be ready to mobilize its member universities in support of the rebuilding efforts of the university. Similarly, Prof. Espen Bjertness of the University of Oslo and member of the Steering Committee of PEACE,[50] stressed that “the sad situation for all academics caused by the bombing of our member university, Islamic University, Gaza and of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program calls for appropriate action”.[51]

The University was bombed again during the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, where on Saturday August 2, an Israeli airstrike targeted the administration building, causing severe damage to the building and to nearby buildings and the university's mosque.[52] The Israeli army claimed it targeted a "weapon development" centre in the university, which the university denied.[13][52] The bombing came a day after what became known as the "black Friday", one of the deadliest episodes of the war.[53]

The university was attacked following the incursion by Hamas into Israel in 2023 as a "training institution for the development and production of weapons."[54]

The Chronicle of Higher Education says that Islamic University was co-founded by one of the future founders of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, in 1978.[55] The Washington Institute for Near East Policy wrote in a piece on USAID funding of organisations with possible links to terrorism that connections exist between the university and Hamas.[56] The U.S. Office of Inspector General said in a 2007 audit of U.S. assistance to Palestinian universities that the IUG has been vetted eight times between 2002 and 2007, concluding that "the vetting did not reveal information that would preclude the awards from proceeding".[40]

Arguing against such ties with Hamas were Marcy Newman and Akram Habeeb, who wrote for the Middle East Children's Alliance in 2009: "equally important for our American colleagues is to remove the false label that IUG is a "Hamas-controlled" institution. Just as Palestinians in Gaza belong to a variety of political parties, IUG's students, board, faculty and staff represent that reality. IUG is a university like any other in the Palestinian Territories that reflects the diversity of its population."[41]

Steven Erlanger, former Jerusalem bureau chief of the New York Times, described the IUG as "one of the prime means for Hamas to convert Palestinians to its Islamist cause," in a 2007 piece about Palestinian infighting and Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.[57] This report was criticised by political economist Sara Roy of Harvard University, who explicitly stated that 'there can be no question that Hamas works within the framework of Islamic institutions in the Gaza Strip, and that there are certain direct links between Hamas and many of the social and economic institutions (in the strip). ... However, it is far more questionable whether an automatic and inevitable link exists between Hamas and Islamic social and economic institutions, whether those links are inherently subversive, or whether such institutions promote radicalism and violence as is commonly assumed." Roy also writes: "logic maintains, institutional clients become automatically linked to Hamas and constitute a base of support for political Islam. As a result, Islamic social institutions become recruiting centers for the Hamas's military wing. There is however, little hard evidence to support any of these allegations."[58]

Samar Sabih, considered Hamas's first female bombmaker, was recruited while studying at IUG in 2003, according to Israeli security officials.[59]

• Selected images of IUG campuses over the past 15 years
• 
  Official IUG logo
• 
  Al-Quds building (Main building of the School of Engineering)
• 
  Abdulkareem Liheedan building (arts building, females)
• 
  Main conference hall
• 
  The Faculty of Medicine and the affiliated Palestinian-Turkish Friendship Hospital buildings south of Gaza city (southern view).
• 
  The Faculty of Medicine and the affiliated Palestinian-Turkish Friendship Hospital buildings south of Gaza city (northern view).
• 
  A panoramic view of the IUG campus taken from atop the conference hall building. The administration building (center), the mosque (left), the cafeteria and Taiba buildings (right) are seen.
• 
  Administration building as seen in 2021.
• 
  IUG campus top view
• 
  The science (center) and library (left) buildings as seen in from the western direction.
• 
  The conference hall (right) and the continuous education building (left) can be seen.
• 
  IUG Faculty of Medicine building is seen from the east.

• List of Palestinian universities
• Education in the Palestinian territories

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Islamic University of Gaza.

• Official website
• Islamic University in photos
• General searching database for scholarships
• Publications of The Islamic University of Gaza (in Arabic)
• The Islamic University Conferences
• Report on connections between university and Hamas Archived 2021-07-23 at the Wayback Machine

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