Israeli soldiers raided Birzeit University near Ramallah early Monday, demolishing a stone monument dedicated to students and alumni killed by Israel and replacing it with a fig sapling.

The raid, which involved a bulldozer and approximately 10 military vehicles, saw soldiers remove the marble stone of the Martyrs’ Monument. In its place, they left a planter with a young fig tree and an inscription reading, “Water it twice.”

Rania Washaha, 47, whose brother Fadi was among the 38 students listed on the memorial, described the act as reopening old wounds. Fadi Washaha was shot and killed by an Israeli soldier in May 2021. The monument, erected between 1994 and 1996, bore the names of students and alumni killed by Israeli forces, with the earliest entry dating back to 1984.

Birzeit University administration condemned the destruction, calling it a violation of international law and an attack on national memory and education. In a statement, the university vowed that such actions would not deter its academic and national mission, stating, “Bulldozers won’t erase the memory of the martyrs, military vehicles won’t extinguish the light of knowledge, and these assaults won’t break the university’s resolve."

This incident marks the fifth Israeli incursion into the Birzeit campus since the beginning of 2026 and the 28th since 2002. The raid occurred just 10 days after another daytime incursion by Israeli forces, which took place the day before the new fall semester began. During that previous raid, soldiers reportedly photographed the monument for the first time.

Nardeen al-Memi, the university’s public relations and media officer, confirmed the soldiers' actions during the earlier incursion. The monument served as a significant marker of remembrance for the university community, listing individuals like Sharaf al-Tayyibi, who was shot dead on campus in 1984, and most recently, student Omar al-Naasan, killed in May 2026.

The destruction of the Martyrs’ Monument is seen by university officials and some observers as a deliberate attempt to erase Palestinian historical memory and suppress defiance. The act has drawn criticism for its symbolic nature, replacing a memorial of lives lost with a symbol of new growth, under military occupation.

University officials have emphasized their commitment to continue honoring the memory of fallen students, with students already seen writing the names of the martyrs back onto the site where the monument once stood. The ongoing raids and the destruction of the memorial highlight the persistent tensions and conflicts surrounding educational institutions in the occupied Palestinian territories.