Volunteers renovate ancient Gaza buildings

Gulf Today Report

Al-Kamalai School, the grand 500-year-old Gaza building has slowly begun its journey to former glory after years of being abandoned.

 The building made in the Mamluk-era is located in the old quarter city of Gaza. It is one of a lot of structures on the risk of demolition.

Abdullah al-Ruzzi, an artist and leading volunteer said "it was in a very difficult, pitiful state. It was a dump.” 

The long-abandoned 200-year-old building. AP

The Mobaderoon program was created by a group of artists hoping to save abandoned houses and from two periods of Gaza’s history: the Mamluk Sultanate and the Ottoman Empire.

Houses from those ears that are still standing are less than 200, according to a report.

Due to the size of the Gaza Strip, experts and volunteers are apprehensive about structures of past centuries disappearing as residents make way for new urban development. 

 A female artist volunteer cleans a room in Al-Kamalaia school, AP

 According to Al-Ruzzi, the goal of the renovation is to transform the building into a venue for cultural and artistic activities.

 "This is the only school that still maintains its architectural standing, it still has classrooms. It’s clear that this school was used until a recent time in education and memorizing the Quran because it’s in the old city,” said Jamal Abu Rida, director of the archaeology department in Gaza’s Tourism Ministry.

 A few blocks from the school, a different team is working on renovating a house, the Ghussein palace, named after the family that has owned it for 200 years. The workers scraped the bricks to remove layers of dust that hid their features. Others took measurements for the door frames.