The recent war posed a devastating threat to Gaza's heritage and antiquities, as the Israeli bombardment severely damaged the Khan Yunis Museum, destroyed many artifacts, and severely damaged the museum building.

This museum was established by self-efforts and does not live up as a building to the level and value of the exhibits, and it is divided into two parts, an antiquities section that includes pieces dating back to prehistoric times to the modern era, most notably a collection of pieces dating back to the Roman and Byzantine era and rich coinage collections dating back to the Byzantine, Umayyad, Abbasid, Ayyubid, Mamluk and Ottoman eras.

Many archaeological pottery pieces were destroyed, some of which were lost forever, and some of them can be treated with restoration, and the museum has pieces of wonderful ornaments, and many rare weapons are kept from the remnants of the First and Second World Wars, and the Heritage Department includes wooden instruments to play at weddings and summers such as barjol, youth and rebabah, and agricultural tools, some of which date back to 200 years, such as sickles and coming.

In addition to Palestinian costumes dating back to before 1948, especially men's fashion such as the abaya, qambaz, keffiyeh, headband and stick, but one of the most important holdings of the Heritage Department are household items such as millstones, cannons and pottery dating back 100 years, some of which were severely damaged, and it is not possible to determine the extent of the damage to the museum's holdings so far.

Gaza Museums

Gaza includes 12 museums with 12,<> artifacts, all built by self-efforts in the desire of the people of Gaza to preserve their heritage, all of these museums suffered varying damage as a result of the Israeli bombardment, in addition to leaving some of them unguarded or follow-up either to displace those in charge of them or the martyrdom of some of them.

Some evidence also indicates the theft of many objects, but there is no conclusive proof of this yet, as Gaza's lack of specialized cadres in museums has made it difficult to quantify these damages, in addition to the lack of accurate scientific recording and thus the possibility of being looted.

One of the most prominent museums in Gaza that has suffered damage ranging from cracks in its walls to cracks, destruction or breaking of some of the holdings is the Akkad Museum, which was established 44 years ago and houses 2800,<> artifacts from prehistoric to modern times.

As well as the Pasha Palace, which was built in the Mamluk era and turned into a museum in 2010, but since this year it has not received the necessary care, and it is currently exposed to damage that needs urgent intervention, and whenever this intervention is delayed, its condition deteriorates, and we do not have information about the condition of its holdings, which is worrying.

Since the siege of Gaza in 2007, organized scientific archaeological excavations to stop the indiscriminate looting of archaeological mounds have stopped, and this is what has wasted researchers a lot of information in tracking and recording this heritage, and if it were not for the efforts of individuals, we would not have anything left of this heritage in Gaza, Suhaila Shaheen spent 30 years collecting this heritage to establish the Rafah Museum for Folklore.

Khan Yunis Museum and the Antiquities of Israeli Aggression

Ancient Mosques

If the Sayyid Hashim Mosque was destroyed in the First World War with a bomb in 1917, the continuous bombardment around it led to the cracking of some of its walls, the mosque where the grandfather of the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) Hashem bin Abd Manaf was buried, and the same damage to the Sheikh Zakaria Mosque in the Daraj neighborhood in Gaza, which was established in the fifth century AH / AD 11th.

As well as the Shamaa Mosque in the Najjarin neighborhood, and the Sheikh Abdullah Mosque, an old mosque in the apple neighborhood in which Sheikh Abdullah Al-Aibki is buried, a Mamluk Sultan Izz al-Din Aybak, as well as damaged by the archaeological mosques in Gaza, Ibn Othman Mosque, which is one of the Gaza mosques built in the eighth century AH.

Among the archaeological facilities damaged by the Israeli bombardment of Gaza are the Sabil of Sultan Abdul Hamid, an architectural facility that provided water to passers-by, and the Samra bath, which is located in the Zeitoun neighborhood, which is one of the wonderful models of Ottoman baths and is studied as an integrated model within the methodologies for studying the history of baths in Islamic architecture, and is the only remaining bath in Gaza.

All of the above requires the urgent intervention of UNESCO in order to declare Gaza's heritage a threatened human heritage that requires urgent programmes to save it, as well as the role of the Islamic Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization and the Organization of Islamic Capitals and Cities.

But the most important thing is the formation of a scientific committee to identify the dangers and develop a rescue plan and urgent consolidation of the threatened heritage, as well as the identification of a warehouse for the transfer of archaeological holdings so that we do not lose more of them under the fire of Israeli bombardment, and then after the war it became necessary to restructure the treatment of heritage in Gaza in a new way.

Hashim Mosque