Islamic University of Gaza

Founding

No universities or higher education institutions existed in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip until 1972. Before then, Palestinian high school graduates sought higher education abroad, mostly in Egyptian and Jordanian universities. However, travel restrictions after the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967, economic problems, and quotas on the admission of Palestinian students to Arab universities changed this situation. Initiatives by local elders and community leaders were set in motion to establish higher education institutions, often on the grounds of existing schools and colleges.

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 announced the opening of three faculties: Sharia, Usool-Deen, and Arabic Language (which later evolved into the Faculty of Arts). The university was inaugurated in November 1978 as an independent, nonprofit, gender-segregated university. It was the first higher education institution in the Gaza Strip. The Faculty of Education was founded in 1980 and the Faculties of Commerce and Arts 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.

The establishment of the Faculty of Nursing was held up until 1993 and it took time to obtain building permits. The academic freedom of the university was restricted and staff movement was limited by Military Order 854. The university was granted a temporary license that required annual renewal, and it was denied tax exemptions.

February 2007 fighting between Fatah and Hamas

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.

December 2008 bombing

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. 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.

Several international academic institutions proceeded to express their commitment to support IUG and other universities in Gaza. The International Association of Universities, of which IUG is a member, 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, 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".

2014 Gaza war

The university was bombed again during the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict: on 2 August, an Israeli airstrike targeted the administration building, causing severe damage to the building and to nearby buildings. The Israeli army claimed it targeted a "weapon development" centre in the university, which the university denied.

2023 Gaza war

On the night of 10 October 2023, during the opening week of the Gaza war, the university's Gaza City campus was bombed and its buildings destroyed. Israeli forces alleged that the university had served as a "training institution for the development and production of weapons." The neighboring Al-Azhar University campus was also bombed during the same night. In November 2024, the university stated that 16 buildings, the central library, over 240,000 books, 8,000 periodicals, and more than 16,000 master's and doctoral theses had been destroyed during the war. From 2023 to 2024, 56 academic and administrative employees of the university were killed, including university president Sufyan Tayeh.