As the world's three major religions, Palestine is home to a large number of world-class cultural heritages. However, for nearly 75 years, Gaza has been under war and artillery fire.
Since the outbreak of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on 7 October, Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip have killed more than 20,000 Palestinians and injured more than 50,000.
UNESCO has pointed out that a large-scale rocket attack would put archaeological sites in the Gaza Strip at considerable risk.
So, are the cultural sites of Gaza in the midst of war still okay?
The results of a recent survey released by Heritage for Peace detail the damage to more than 100 landmark buildings in Gaza since the start of the current round of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Damaged cultural sites include the Omari Mosque, one of the oldest and largest mosques in Gaza's historyConsidered the third oldest church in the world, the Church of St. Porphyrius;A 2,000-year-old Roman necropolis was excavated in northern Gaza only last year;and the Rafah Museum in southern Gaza, which was originally a space dedicated to the dissemination of the region's culture.
Screenshot of a National Public Radio report (captioned is the Church of St. Porphyrius after an air raid).
The Israeli side claims that Hamas operates in civilian areas, including hospitals and mosques, and that they have carried out air strikes against these areas with the aim of striking Hamas and rescuing hostages.
The ruined Rafah Museum posted a video of the curator's speech on its social media account.
Suhaila Shaheen, the museum's director, said: "There used to be a lot of priceless items here, including coins, gemstones, copper plates and clothes, but now they are gone."
As you can see from the picture, the wall behind the curator cracked and collapsed, and many stucco fragments were scattered on the ground.
Screenshot of Rafah Museum Social **.
The Palestinian Ministry of Culture recently issued a statement saying that since the outbreak of the current round of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Israeli warplanes have bombed eight large museums in Gaza, including the Rafah Museum and the Khan Younis Museum. In addition, large parts of Gaza's Old City, including more than a dozen historic buildings, were destroyed. Even more shocking is the fact that Israel has also razed a number of publishing houses, libraries and regional cultural centres in Gaza.
Screenshot of the Middle East Watch ** report (caption picture shows the bombed Omari Mosque).
In an interview with NPR, Isser Sablin, president of Peace Legacy, said that "if there is no longer such heritage in Gaza, it will be a great loss of identity for the people of Gaza" and that "the people of Gaza have the right to preserve and preserve this heritage, to tell the history, to tell the importance of this land".
Palestine and Israel had signed the Hague Convention in 1954 to protect landmarks from war, but many of Gaza's landmarks had been destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in previous rounds of conflict.
A spokesman for UNESCO said in a statement that the organization was deeply concerned about the adverse impact of the new Palestinian-Israeli conflict on Palestinian and Israeli cultural heritage, and that "we call on all parties concerned to strictly abide by international law and that cultural property should not be targeted or used for military purposes."
In its statement, UNESCO also said that staff were unable to access the area to assess the damage to cultural heritage due to ongoing conflicts.
Screenshot of Al Jazeera's report in Qatar.
Compilation丨Lin Wei.
Signed丨Jiang Aimin.