Amid relentless reports of destruction, immense loss of life and a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the war between Israel and Hamas continues to ravage the small enclave’s rich cultural heritage. Gaza’s history, much of which has yet to be discovered, spans numerous civilizations, including the Egyptians, Philistines, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, and Byzantines. It was ruled by various Islamic dynasties after the 7th century and by the Ottoman Empire from the 16th century until the British occupation in 1917. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities there are more than 130 registered historical sites in Gaza, excluding historic houses. . Three sites in Gaza are on the Provisional List of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Specialized visits impossible
The ministry is seeking to assess the extent of damage to heritage in Gaza, but conditions on the ground prevent specialists from visiting the sites in person, says Jehad Yasin, its director general of excavations and museums. “People can’t move from one place to another so it’s still difficult to get information,” he says, but the ministry follows news footage closely and receives reports from its contacts on the ground whenever possible.
An NGO based in Spain, Heritage for Peace, released a preliminary report on November 7 that listed 104 historic sites as damaged or destroyed. Since then, more cases of destruction have emerged. The Palestinian branch of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (Icomos) issued a preliminary damage report on December 6, gathering information from the Palestinian Authority and colleagues in the field in Gaza.
The Icomos Palestine report confirms the total or partial destruction of nine heritage sites in Gaza. However, branch president Shireen Allan says the damage is likely to be far greater than those cases. “Our standards for including sites in the report are very high. We usually confirm through a site visit and images, but at the moment access to the sites is very difficult,” says Allan, speaking from Jerusalem. The Journal of Art.
Israel launched military strikes in Gaza on October 7 after an unprecedented attack by the militant group Hamas killed about 1,200 people and took about 240 hostages, Israeli officials said. During a week-long ceasefire from November 24 to 30, Hamas released 105 hostages and 240 Palestinians were released from Israeli prisons. More than 18,500 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza’s health ministry, while a UN assessment in mid-December estimated that nearly 40,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed. The brief truce allowed Icomos to conduct an assessment of some heritage sites in Gaza through collaborations with the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, the Ministry of Culture and Gaza Municipality staff, Allan says.
The Icomos report cites the complete destruction of Gaza City’s Central Archives, which housed thousands of historical documents, and Casa El Saqqa, an important cultural center inside a traditional house from the Islamic Mamluk period built in 1661, as well as partial damage to Al Ahli Baptist Hospital, founded in 1882 and thought to be the oldest hospital in Gaza. Yasin confirms the damage to Casa El Saqqa and the Central Archives. Social media photos and videos reviewed by The Journal of Art show the complete destruction of Casa El Saqqa. An explosion at Al Ahli Hospital on October 17 killed several hundred people, according to the Hamas-run Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Souq Al Zawiya, one of the oldest and most important markets in Gaza City, was also completely destroyed, according to Icomos Palestine. The market is located near the Great Mosque of Omari, the oldest and largest mosque in Gaza. The Icomos report recorded only minor damage to the mosque’s minaret. However, on December 8, just a few days after the report was published, devastating video footage emerged of the Great Mosque of Omari in ruins with only its minaret intact. The mosque dates from the 7th century, when the site was converted into a Byzantine church.
“This mosque was a symbol for the people of Gaza, and many had a connection to it,” says Yasin. “I think people feel that the occupation plans to destroy our heritage. What for us is a symbol or an identity, they want to demolish”.
Icomos Palestine has confirmed damage at other sites with colleagues on the ground, Allan says, but will only release those findings when it receives the accompanying images, which are delayed due to the lack of internet and electricity in Gaza. Some of these sites include the Pasha Palace Museum, a 13th-century fortress that was the only museum run by the Gaza government, the 13th-century Othman bin Qashqar Mosque in the al-Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City, and the Souq Al Qaysariyya, a gold market next door. the Great Mosque of Omari.
The situation in Gaza afterwards [the week-long ceasefire in November] it’s worse
Shiree Allan, President of the Palestinian branch of Icomos
“The situation in Gaza after the truce is worse. We urge the international community and all cultural organizations to call for an immediate ceasefire to save lives and an urgent intervention to protect cultural property in accordance with international conventions,” Allan appeals.
Threatened coastal archaeology
Not all of the destruction of Gaza’s heritage stems from direct military strikes. The water and sewage crisis caused by the war is also affecting coastal archaeology. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported in mid-November that fuel shortages had closed sewage pumping stations and that raw sewage was flowing into the streets in some areas. Sewage has also reportedly flowed into the Mediterranean and the coastal wetlands of Wadi Gaza, which extend from eastern Gaza to the coast, where it flows into the sea; according to OCHA, more than 130,000 cubic meters of waste water are being discharged into the Mediterranean daily. The Journal of Art OCHA was contacted to confirm whether the sewage stations and pumping stations emptying into Wadi Gaza were out of order, but did not receive a reply at the time of publication.
Water pollution poses a substantial threat to the preservation of underwater archaeology, says Georgia Andreou, director of the Gaza Maritime Archeology Project (Gazamap). The initiative was launched in 2022 to survey and examine Gaza’s coastal sites as part of a wider project on endangered maritime cultural heritage in the Middle East and North Africa, led by the University of Southampton and the University of Ulster in partnership with the University of Oxford. Andreou notes that the sites often form artificial reefs with important ecosystems that are also sensitive to changes in water conditions.
Gaza’s coast was already “rapidly deteriorating”, he says, due to erosion caused by the construction of the Aswan Dam on the Nile more than 50 years ago, which exposes and destroys archaeological features before they can be documented. “Sites along this coast will eventually disappear.”
Much of the coastal archeology of the Gaza Strip remains undocumented, and Gazamap’s research, which had documented more than 20,000 surface finds and reconstructed part of the coast during the Iron Age, is now on hold because of the war. One of the project’s archeology students in Gaza and two media contributors, who were training students and obtaining aerial images, were killed in the airstrikes. Several other students were displaced. But when monitoring satellite images, the researchers observed shelling on or near coastal sites and near Wadi Gaza, a natural site designated on the UNESCO Indicative World Heritage List. These sites include Taur Ikhbeineh and Tell es-Sakan, settlements from the fourth to third millennium BC.
The port of Anthedon, Gaza’s first known seaport that was also on the Unesco Provisional Heritage List, was bombed and razed, Andreou says. Yasin confirms that the port is “completely destroyed”. In 2013, media reports emerged that Hamas had razed part of the port to expand its military training area. However, The Journal of Art he could not confirm this or whether there was an active military zone in the port when the war began in October.
Unesco action
Reports suggest that Gaza’s third site on Unesco’s Provisional World Heritage List, Tell Umm Amer, has also been damaged in the war. The status of the site cannot be confirmed due to the severe destruction of its surroundings and access roads. Located in the village of Al Nusairat on the coast, about 8.5 km south of Gaza City, Tell Umm Amer is notable for the ruins of the Monastery of Saint Hilarion, one of the oldest and largest monasteries with significant remains in the Middle East. The ruins “are a unique testimony to the emergence of Christianity in the region,” says a Unesco spokesman. Although the site is under the direct supervision of the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, the spokesman confirms that Unesco continues to monitor the site remotely through satellite data and information transmitted through third parties.
Unesco’s Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict met on 14 December and granted Tell Umm Amer “provisional enhanced protection”, the highest level of immunity from attack established by the 1954 Hague Convention and its Second Protocol, adopted in 1999. If the enhanced protection granted to a cultural asset is not respected, the second protocol establishes criminal sanctions for violators.
Both Israel and Palestine have ratified the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, the spokesman said, although Israel has not signed the second protocol. This multilateral treaty stipulates that the signatory states will respect cultural property in their own territories and in the territories of other parties by refraining from “any act of hostility” against said property, or from any action that “exposes it to destruction or damage in the country” . case of armed conflict”.
“We need a ceasefire; everyone is calling for a ceasefire,” says Yasin. While he acknowledges that the priority after the war must be the reconstruction of Gaza and humanitarian efforts, he hopes that a comprehensive assessment of the damage caused to cultural heritage will also be done. What is lost is part of our history,” he says.
