Boldly stated: Gaza’s cultural heritage is not a museum, but a living archive under threat, and the slow, painstaking recovery work now underway reads like emergency first aid for monuments and manuscripts alike. This piece revisits how teams on the ground—Palestinian workers, conservators, and international partners—are laboring to salvage what war has left shattered, even as access, materials, and security limits complicate every step.
Across Gaza, dozens of workers in hard hats clear rubble from the Great Omari Mosque, the city’s oldest and largest religious site. Only the octagonal minaret stump and a few outer walls remain after bombardments during two years of conflict. Since a US-brokered ceasefire took effect almost eight weeks ago, a cautious process of sorting and removing stones has begun, but full restoration remains out of reach because Israel has blocked building supplies at crossings, citing the ceasefire terms.
Hosni al-Mazloum, an engineer with the Palestinian heritage group Riwaq, explains the dual hurdles: material shortages—iron and construction supplies are scarce—and the reliance on basic, manual tools to protect stones that are 1,200 to 1,300 years old. Nearby in Gaza City, Hanin al-Amsi operates from a cramped office, poring over fragments of rare Islamic manuscripts recovered from the Great Omari Mosque’s 13th-century library. She likens the recovery of manuscripts to performing first aid for people, underscoring the urgency and fragility of these texts.
Al-Amsi recalls a junior colleague who risked his life to fetch manuscripts as the Old City endured intense bombardment. A treasure of early Islamic works remained trapped in the library amidst the destruction. Since a prior two-month ceasefire in January, she has led a team funded by the British Council to recover and safeguard these works, starting with manual rubble removal. Despite catastrophic losses, 148 of 228 manuscripts survived, largely due to pre-war preservation efforts coordinated with the British Library, which digitized and archived works stored in acid-free boxes and iron safes.
Some recovered pieces appear nearly unscathed, while others resemble torn scraps. A box of charred Arabic calligraphy illustrates the uneven damage. In recent days, heavy equipment has been used to uncover more severely damaged manuscripts, revealing that the library’s archive—the archive’s value as a record of Palestinian history, including Ottoman materials—was largely burned.
Palestinians accuse Israel of targeting heritage sites—a war crime. Israel denies this, asserting actions are in line with international law. The IDF contends Hamas caused many historical losses by locating near or beneath cultural sites and claims to have targeted a tunnel under the Great Omari Mosque.
Unesco has documented damage to 145 religious, historic, and cultural sites in Gaza since October 7, 2023, largely via satellite assessments. Local organizations conducting ground surveys report far higher levels of destruction. Gaza’s history spans more than 5,000 years, with layers from Canaanites, ancient Egyptians, Philistines, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Jewish Hasmoneans, Romans, Christian Byzantines, and Muslim Mamluks and Ottomans.
In the Old City, a team clears sand and mortar from the remnants of the 800-year-old Pasha’s Palace, revealing mosaic patterns. Project director Issam Juha of the Centre for Cultural Heritage Preservation notes that basic interventions require materials—cement or lime mortar—that remain scarce. The palace, once a Napoleonic residence and later a prominent museum, stands as a symbol of Palestinian identity and memory, and preservationists insist on safeguarding what remains.
Local accounts vary on why the Pasha’s Palace was targeted; residents say an air strike preceded bulldozing. Trained laborers now search for some 17,000 artefacts once housed there, most of which were crushed or looted. To date, only about 30 artefacts have been recovered, including a fragment from a Byzantine sarcophagus lid and pottery.
The ongoing, labor-intensive work has brought essential employment to Gaza's cultural sector, with international NGOs supporting local groups. The Aliph Foundation has provided $700,000 for emergency reconstruction work since 2024, maintaining near-daily contact with on-ground teams. The British Council notes that post-ceasefire damage assessments and safety checks are ongoing to gauge future heritage work feasibility.
Leading Gazan archaeologist Fadel el-Otol, based in Switzerland, stresses that many archaeological sites remain inaccessible due to the presence of the Israeli army, including Roman cemeteries and a Byzantine church near Jabalia camp, and the Greek port of Anthedon in Gaza City, which is blocked by displaced residents. He emphasizes the difficulty in assessing internal damage where access is denied.
On the political front, Washington signals progress on the next stage of the Gaza ceasefire, focusing on governance, security, and reconstruction after Hamas. For many Gazans, the future remains uncertain, yet the emergence of activity at iconic heritage sites offers a glimmer of hope amid the ruins.
Note: Additional reporting by Malak Hassouneh in Jerusalem.
