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More than 100 Gaza heritage sites have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli attacks
The nonprofit group Heritage for Peace's preliminary findings show 104 historic religious buildings, museums and archaeological sites have b
NPR
In the weeks since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip have killed more than 15,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry, and destroyed thousands of homes in the territory.
And there have also been tremendous losses to the region's ancient and globally significant cultural heritage. The region was a hub for commerce and culture under Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Byzantine rule. It remained influential for centuries thereafter.
A recent survey by the group Heritage for Peace details the damage done so far to more than 100 of these landmarks in Gaza since the start of the present conflict.
The casualties include the Great Omari Mosque, one of the most important and ancient mosques in historical Palestine; the Church of Saint Porphyrius, thought to be the third oldest church in the entire world; a 2,000-year-old Roman cemetery in northern Gaza excavated only last year; and the Rafah Museum, a space in southern Gaza which was dedicated to teaching about the territory's long and multi-layered heritage β€” until it was hammered by airstrikes early on in the conflict. (...)
"If this heritage be no more in Gaza, it will be a big loss of the identity of the people in Gaza," said Isber Sabrine, president of Heritage for Peace, in an interview with NPR. (...)
"The people in Gaza, they have the right to keep and to save this heritage, to tell the history, the importance of this land," he said.
The 1954 Hague Convention, agreed to by Palestinians and Israelis, is supposed to safeguard landmarks from the ravages of war. But landmarks in Gaza have been destroyed by Israeli strikes in earlier rounds of fighting. Dozens of sites, including the now-obliterated Great Omari Mosque, suffered damage in 2014. A report by UNESCO, the United Nations body that designates and protects World Heritage sites, cites further destruction to cultural and historic sites in Gaza in 2021. (...)

Destruction of historical sites and other cultural sites is part of genocide, it's the destruction of the proof of a people's relationship to the land and a horrible emotional blow at the community. UNESCO must act immediately against Israel's destruction of Palestinian heritage, and every country and international organism must expel Israel and impose sanctions to make the genocide and apartheid end.