Crimes against history
Over 200 archeological sites in Gaza destroyed by Israeli army
The Israeli army has destroyed more than 200 archeological and ancient sites out of 325 that were registered across the Gaza Strip in the course of its devastating onslaught since Oct. 7, authorities in the enclave said, Anadolu Agency reports.
The Government Media Office in Gaza reported that Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have destroyed over 200 heritage sites out of the 325 in Gaza.
Gaza is an ancient and historic city that came under the rule of several empires and civilizations, including the Pharaohs, the Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines then the Islamic age, among others.
The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) has destroyed more than 200 archeological and ancient sites out of 325 that were registered across the Gaza Strip in the course of its devastating onslaught since Oct. 7, Government Media Office in Gaza reported.
Gaza is an ancient and historic city that came under the rule of several empires and civilizations, including the Pharaohs, the Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines then the Islamic age, among others.
According to a statement, this includes historic mosques, churches, schools, museums, ancient houses, and various heritage locations.
In the statement, it highlighted that the IOF destroyed heritage sites date back to the Phoenician and Roman eras, some 800 years before Christ, 1400 years, and 400 years. It added that the IOF destruction of heritage sites in Gaza constitutes a clear international crime under international laws, especially humanitarian law and the 1954 Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in Armed Conflict. The 1999 Protocol explicitly prohibits intentional targeting under all circumstances of cultural and religious sites.
It added “We call on all relevant international organizations and bodies to condemn this organized crime committed by the Israeli Occupation Forces in Gaza. We urge immediate intervention to stop this crime and work towards rehabilitating and restoring these destroyed heritage and cultural sites.”
Key religious sites struck by airstrikes since Israel’s war began include the Great Omari Mosque, one of the oldest and most important mosques in historical Palestine, that was destroyed – with only its ancient minaret standing.
The mosque, in the heart of Gaza City’s old town, has been a Christian or Muslim holy site since at least the fifth century.
Many churches suffered damage. Built in 406 CE, the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius, the oldest church in Gaza originally founded in 425 CE, was bombed on October 19. The church’s nave sustained major damage, while the administration building was totally demolished. Over 20 Christian families who sought sanctuary within the church were murdered, according to Watani Newspaper.
In Jabalia, indirect bombardment partially destroyed the 444 CE Byzantine Church and the Holy Family Catholic Church, which was established by Fr. Jean Morétan in Gaza in 1869.
The Baptist Church, which was established by the Church Missionary Society of the Church of England in 1882, is housed at the National Baptist Hospital. On October 26, Israel bombed the hospital, severely damaging the church and its annexes and leaving hundreds of people dead or injured.
So too have the Palestinian Legislative Council’s (PLC) memorial monument in the Memorial Park for the Unknown Soldier, symbolising the struggle of the Palestinian people.
Jehad Yasin, the ministry’s director of museums and excavations confirms, however, that the 2,000-year-old Roman cemetery discovered last year in northern Gaza, containing dozens of ancient graves and two rare sarcophagi made of lead, was “almost completely destroyed” by bombardment. He says the ministry has no information on the condition of the artefacts or of one of the coffins that had been transferred to storage in Gaza. The second coffin was still on site. “If it’s [the store] still safe or bombed, we don’t know,” Yasin says. “If we lose this material, I think we lose a page from our history.”
Moreover, Anthedon Harbour, inhabited from 800 BCE to 1100 CE, Gaza’s first known seaport and one of three Gazan sites on UNESCO’s Tentative List of World Heritage was severely impacted by Israeli strikes, while the main library in Gaza, containing historical documents and books, was partially destroyed.
At least six key cultural centres have also been damaged, among them the Rafah Museum, a space dedicated to teaching about Gaza’s heritage that housed hundreds of artefacts, which partially collapsed, and Al Qarara Cultural Museum in Khan Younis, which was also badly damaged.
In late November, intense Israeli shelling destroyed Gaza City’s Central Archive building, which contained thousands of historical documents dating back over 150 years.
“These documents represent an integral part of our history and culture,” the mayor of Gaza, Yahya Al-Sarraj, said following the incident, highlighting their historical value for the community.
Birzeit University in the occupied West Bank posted photos from inside the heavily damaged municipal building. “The Israeli occupation destroys the central archive of Gaza municipality, executing thousands of historical documents, and deliberately razing all life forms; erasing the city and its history. It is worth noting that the archive holds documents more than a hundred years old,” it said.
The papers housed within the archives held important national records dating back generations and information documenting the history of Gaza and its people, along with plans for Gaza City’s urban development.
The Rashad al-Shawwa historical cultural centre, a crucial cultural hub founded in 1985 that hosts a theatre and library holding around 20,000 books, also suffered considerable damage and destruction in airstrikes.
Israel’s bombardment of Gaza also destroyed five bookstores.
In addition, the Israeli army has destroyed most parts of the Old City of Gaza City, which contained 146-year-old houses and dozens of historical buildings.
The over 1,600-year-old Monastery of Saint Hilarion at Tell Umm Amer, the late Ottoman-era House of Al-Ghussein, and the Hammam al-Samara are among the other noteworthy locations impacted.
In addition, one of Gaza’s most important archaeological sites has been largely destroyed by Israel’s invasion, according to a report by Forensic Architecture.
The investigative organisation used open source and satellite imagery to show that the site, located near Al-Shati refugee camp, had been hit by bombings and then bulldozed for what appears to be a military camp.
The imagery also reveals the development of Israeli water pump infrastructure in and around the site, nominally for the purpose of flooding tunnels.
Forensic Architecture said the site had been excavated between 1995 and 2005 and that among the items discovered were an Iron Age rampart underneath Achaemenid period houses, Roman and Hellenistic-era structures including an emporium, a tiled fountain on the coast, and a Byzantine cemetery in the north.
It noted that other sites were severely damaged, including the 400-year-old Al-Saqqa House, the Sayed al-Hashim Mosque, the Shrine of Al-Khadir in Deir al-Balah city in central Gaza Strip, Sheikh Shaaban Mosque, Al-Dhafar Damri Mosque, Mosque Khalil al-Rahman, Khan Yunis mosque, and the Balakhiya Byzantine cemetery (The Anthedon of Palestine), northwestern Gaza City which is one of the oldest mosques in Gaza.
Hamas urged UNESCO and other cultural institutions to protect historic buildings in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas-run Ministry of Antiquities condemned the “ransacking of historical and archaeological sites” by the Israeli army.
“The crime of targeting and destroying archaeological sites should spur the world and UNESCO into action to preserve this great civilisational and cultural heritage,” said the antiquities ministry, which estimates that 104 mosques have been razed since the start of the war.
Geneva-based rights group, Euro-Med Monitor, said Nov. 20 that Israel deliberately destroyed archeological and historical monuments in the Gaza Strip, and accused it of “explicitly targeting Palestinian cultural heritage.”
Palestinians also say that the deliberate targeting of Gaza’s heritage sites is part of an ongoing effort to suppress Palestinian culture, identity, and, ultimately, their presence on the land.
“From displacement of Palestinians to destruction of heritage sites, it’s all part of a campaign under which no other connection to the land except the Jewish one should be preserved,” political analyst Khalil Sayegh told TNA.
Maher Azmi Abu-Samra, an Amman-based architect originally from Bethlehem, said that destroying historical and cultural heritage has the effect of altering the landscape of the Palestinian territory, depriving its inhabitants of their identity.
“Behind such acts of destruction, there is a policy of erasure of the identity of Palestinians,” he told TNA.
“The next generation won’t have any connection with the land, their memory will be erased,” he added, pointing out how this is part of a strategy to permanently displace Palestinians from the besieged coastal enclave.
Drawing a comparison with Daesh terrorist group, the architectural designer said that like the extremist group, the Israeli state is destroying historical landmarks with the view to change the culture of the indigenous people and replace it with “a whole new reality”.
Abu-Samra, who’s among the few architects in the Middle East to design and build using traditional techniques, says that rebuilding ancient structures in their original style won’t be possible. Well-versed in the load-bearing construction method, which does not involve the use of steel and concrete, he said: “This traditional technique has vanished nowadays. We don’t have skilled craftsmen with such know-how who can redo those sites in the old way”.
The Ministry of Culture’s public relations officer appealed to the international community to protect and restore critical historical buildings in Gaza. “We call on international organisations to stop this ‘culturecide,’” she said, urging UNESCO to save Gaza’s heritage.
Hamas-run Ministry of Antiquities has also recently called on UNESCO to preserve the remaining archaeological and historical sites in the besieged territory.
But even with pledges of foreign aid after Israel’s war ends, it will be almost impossible to rebuild houses and infrastructure with Israel’s blockade in place. Much of Gaza’s rich history and culture, meanwhile, could be lost forever.
Since Hamas’ cross-border attack on Oct. 7, Israel has continued relentless attacks on the Gaza Strip, killing at least 24,400 Palestinians and injuring 61,500, according to local health authorities.
The Israeli onslaught has left Gaza in ruins, with 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure damaged or destroyed and nearly two million residents displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicines.
The Middle East Eye, Arab News, New Arab, Art Newspaper, Anadolu Agency, Asharq Al-Awsat contributed to this article.