Stone and people were not safe from the bombardment. Gaza monuments appeal to UNESCO

The effects of the Israeli bombardment on Gaza affected people and stone (Reuters)

As the Israeli war on Gaza intensifies, the loss of life and the humanitarian crisis continues to cry out to the conscience of the international community to wake it up from its heavy silence, a voice emerged from under the rubble to highlight a cultural catastrophe that affects the rich historical and archaeological heritage of the besieged enclave.

A recent study conducted by the Heritage for Peace group documented the extent of direct and indirect damage to more than 100 historical sites in Gaza so far since October <>.

Detection of traces of destruction

Despite its relatively small area, the Gaza Strip is characterized by historical heritage and archaeological sites of cultural and religious value, including mosques and churches dating back thousands of years.

They destroyed the Pasha's Palace. The palace, which was an essential part of all our school trips, is an ancient and ancient tourist attraction. It goes back to the Mamluk era in the time of Al-Zahir Baybars it was destroyed by criminals hating civilizations and bandits who threw at our country civilization and history from the garbage of history pic.twitter.com/gnS8b2B9gH

— Saja Eleyan (@sajaeleyan) December 29, 2023

In the foreword to its report published on November 7, the Catalonia-based group Heritage for Peace asserts that it maintains a "neutral stance" and praises the role of those activists on the ground in protecting their heritage for the study.

Among the most important victims of the Israeli occupation bombardment are the Great Omari Mosque, one of the most important and oldest mosques in historic Palestine, St. Porphyrios Church, which is believed to be the third oldest church in the world, as well as the Rafah Museum in the south and a 2022,<>-year-old Roman cemetery in northern Gaza excavated in <>.

"The report highlights Gaza's heritage and monitors the effects of destruction since the beginning of the war in an attempt to raise the awareness of the international community about this heritage and cultural disaster," said Group President Esper Sabereen.

He added in his speech to Al Jazeera Net that the importance of the heritage of Gaza "is the comprehensiveness of the history of religions and embrace the first churches in the world and Byzantine monuments and other Mamluk period, as well as museums."

The group's report notes that the old Manuscripts and Documentation Center, the Byzantine Church of Jabalia and the site of the Balakhiya (Antheddon) were completely destroyed by direct shelling, while the Omari Mosque in Gaza and the Deir al-Balah Museum were partially damaged.

Four mosques were directly targeted in the Gaza Strip and 4 others by indirect shelling, in addition to partial damage to 4 ancient houses, according to the report.

Deliberate and direct targeting

Sabreen explained that the study relied on "information and photos from experts from the Gaza Strip under shelling and bombs, including a friend (Fadl al-Atal), who told me that he was saddened by the destruction of al-Omari mosque more than he was sad about the destruction of his house in al-Shati camp in the north."

"Israel does not respect international humanitarian law and wants to sever the people of Gaza from their land, which shows that the destruction of antiquities is not absurd but a deliberate plan followed by the occupying power," he said.

Despite the difficulty of communicating with the people of Gaza, Al Jazeera Net was able to reach the expert in archeology (holidays) to talk about his own experience.

At the beginning of the dialogue, Al-Awal pointed out that he is in the sixth place to which he fled with his family, stressing the extent to which he cares more about the fate of archaeological sites than his home, "because the Israeli shelling is deliberate and deliberate and does not differentiate between humans, stones and animals."

"The occupation army not only targets archaeological sites, but also has the intention of erasing the past, present and ancient and modern Gaza through the method of genocide it commits," he said.

Archaeological sites in Gaza have not been targeted in past wars with such destruction, he said, "but in this war they were destroyed directly, such as the northern mihrab and all the domes in the architectural expansion of the Omari mosque thousands of years ago, which completely disappeared".

On the possibility of restoring the damaged places after the end of the war, he replied clinging to some hope, "We can restore the remaining sites or parts of them that have completely disappeared, such as the site of Al-Balakhiya, which is the oldest seaport dating back to 800 BC - and the Roman wall destroyed by bulldozers and tanks of the occupation was discovered in its western part."

"Mosques, churches and culture in the Gaza Strip have not been spared," he said, adding that the restoration of the Omari Mosque is possible, but it will be "a very long and expensive process because its area is vast."

UNESCO's position

In light of legitimate questions about the fate of these archaeological sites, a UNESCO spokesperson stressed that "priority is usually given to a humanitarian emergency, but cultural heritage in all its forms must also be protected in accordance with international law, which states that cultural property is civilian infrastructure and may not be targeted or used for military purposes."

"UNESCO has developed a process to monitor damage since the beginning of the war based on satellite imagery and information sent to it from third parties, including our partners and sister agencies of the United Nations currently on the ground and in close cooperation with our office in Ramallah," he told Al Jazeera Net.

He stressed that UNESCO, unlike other UN organizations and agencies, does not have a humanitarian mandate, which means it cannot deploy personnel to combat zones and can only conduct remote damage monitoring.

As part of this monitoring, the organization expressed grave concern about the status of the monuments of St. Hilarion's Monastery, inscribed on the 2012 National Tentative World Heritage List, and the remains of one of the first Christian monasteries in the region.

Tel um Amer or St. Hilarion Monastery in Gaza (social media)

To prevent any threat to this site, the UNESCO Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict granted it the status of the site under "enhanced temporary protection", the highest level of immunity against attack provided for in the 1954 Hague Convention and its Second Protocol.

"The implementation of this protection measure has become possible, as the site is now monitored by guards under the direct authority of the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities," the spokesman explained.

"WHO is working on additional emergency measures that can be implemented in the coming months, but the timetable will depend on the evolution of the situation on the ground," he concluded.

Global silence

For his part, the head of the "Heritage for Peace" group believes that UNESCO is a "sterile" organization because it follows the policies of countries under the cloak of the United Nations.

Sabreen pointed out that there is a complete obstruction of the application of international laws and a clear disregard for the 1954 Hague Convention, which stipulates that countries that attack another must take into account the protection of cultural property, as well as the 1999 protocol after the war in Yugoslavia.

This may be one of the reasons that contributed to the completion of the group's report that it is "a civil society organization that can react quickly to disasters and wars and has a ceiling of freedom, unlike some universities, for example, which were unable to issue reports or statements for fear of losing government funding," according to the same spokesman.

Sabreen concluded his remarks by saying that "the people of Gaza have the right to live with their heritage because those who do not have heritage in the place where they live do not have an emotional attachment to their land, as heritage is not only a stone, but stories and identity. For this reason, there are Palestinians like (holidays) who have dedicated their lives to preserving their historical treasure."

Source : Al Jazeera