Destroyed history

Gaza was once a crossroads of the ancient civilisations of the Nile and the Levant. The coastal strip was a trading and transit hub, a rest halt for travellers from neighbouring countries. Today Gaza is an isolated enclave, enclosed by Israel by land on two sides and the sea on one. The fourth side is the border with Egypt which remains Gaza’s only outlet to the world. If that gate is closed; Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinian inhabitants are trapped. Those who manage to leave find nowhere to settle unless they have foreign passports and funds to live on.

Gaza is the only land for Gazans. Donald Trump’s plan to expel them from Gaza to Egypt and Jordan and turn the enclave into a tourist destination has been rejected by Arab and Muslim governments which have adopted Egypt’s 91-page plan for rebuilding Gaza while Gazans live in prefabricated housing in the strip. The three-stage plan is a visionary document which provides for permanent homes, water, sewage, electricity, telecommunications, roads. a seaport and an airport. Israel could be expected to obstruct this stage of the plan which has been supported by Britain, France, Germany and Italy.

The comprehensive plan has, unfortunately excluded, recovery of Gaza’s ancient medieval and historical cultural heritage destroyed and damaged by Israeli military action. From the outset of the conflict archaeologists and historians have voiced concern over Israeli targeting of monuments, ancient sites, and heritage. On 18 April, 2024, UN experts warned, “The foundations of Palestinian society are being reduced to rubble, and their history is being erased.” Eradicating cultural heritage of the Palestinian people is one of the war crimes charged against Israel by South Africa in its lawsuit lodged at the International Court of Justice in early 2024.

In a report issued on 18.Feb, UNESCO verified damage to 83 sites since Israel launched its war on Gaza on 7.Oct, 2023. The list contained “11 religious sites, 53 buildings of historical and/of artistic interest, 3 depositories of movable cultural property, 8 monuments, 1 museum, and 7 archaeological sites.” UNESCO conducted “preliminary damage assessment...through remote mobile monitoring based on satellite imagery and analysis provided by UNITAR/UNOSAT, as on-the-ground assessments [by outsiders] are impossible in the current situation.” The survey covered 77 sites in the Gaza Governorate, two in North Gaza, two in Rafah, two in Deir Al-Balah, one in Khan Younis.

On 6.Feb, Palestinian Minister of Tourism Hani al-Hayek announced that of 316 sites, 138 sustained major damage 61 moderate damage, 27 slight damage, and 90 no damage. The ministry’s findings were based on a field study of all sites conducted by local and external teams after the ceasefire took effect on 19.Jan. The survey also included analysis of satellite images, data collection, and creation of site models. This information was presented in a report entitled “Inventory of the Damages and Risks to Cultural Heritage Sites in Gaza” which was prepared over the period of a year by Palestinian experts in cooperation with an Oxford University team.

The report estimated the cost of recovery of cultural heritage at $274 million. Rebuilding would take place over eight years in three phases: urgent salvage and support of endangered sites, restoration of partially endangered sites, and repair of threatened sites.

Whether random or targeted, Israel’s attacks began soon after the 7.Oct, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel. Air strikes have ravaged Gaza’s schools and universities, museums, libraries, mosques, churches, monasteries, archaeological excavations, cultural centres, and cemeteries.

In February 2025, Gaza’s Ministry of Endowments reported that 79 per cent of Gaza’s mosques had been destroyed. Among those targeted were two of historical importance. Gaza City’s Othman bin Qashqar Mosque was badly damaged in an Israeli air strike on 7.Dec, 2023. It was built in 1220 at the site where it is said the Prophet Muhammad’s great-grandfather was buried. A day later the 1,400-year-old Great Omari Mosque, said to be Gaza’s first mosque, was destroyed along with Its library. Opened in 1277 by Sultan Zahir Baybars, the library once had a valuable collection of 20,000 ancient books and manuscripts. While most were destroyed during the Crusades and World War I, only 62 books remained when Israeli bombs struck. Fortunately, they had been digitalised and are stored at the British Library.

Churches were not spared. The Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius was damaged on 19.Oct, 2023, when bombs struck the roof and killed 17 taking refuge in the sanctuary. Built in 425 on the foundations of an ancient pagan site, the church honoured the missionary saint who sought to convert pagans and close their temples. It is said to be the third oldest church in Christendom.

Of the four museums in Gaza, three have been destroyed. The Rafah Museum and its collection of ancient coins, copper plates and jewellery were smashed by an airstrike on October 11th, 2023. Also levelled that October, Al-Qarara Muslim in Khan Younis which displayed 3,000 artifacts from the 2nd century BC Canaanite Bronze Age civilization.

During the Mamluk period (1250–1516), the Pasha’s Palace served as the residence of the sultan’s representatives. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the palace became a British Mandate police station , then a girls’ school, and eventually a museum. In March 2024, it was destroyed, along with the Byzantine artifacts it contained, by Israeli bombs.

Most of the artifacts unearthed in digs in Gaza were stored either at the Pasha’s Palace museum or a warehouse. However, in 2006, around 260 objects from a 4,000-item collection amassed by Gazan contractor Jawdat Khoudary left Gaza for an exhibition in Geneva’s art and history museum and another display at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris.

Khoudary also built a small museum (Al-Mathaf) in Gaza and filled it with 350 mainly Hellenic items. During Israel’s latest offensive, the museum came under Israel control. He found several artifacts had been looted and the building set on fire. When confronted with criticism over Al-Mathaf, Israel stated, “Israel maintains its commitments, including by affording the necessary special protections.”

Photo: TNS