Gaza Cultural Heritage Systematically Destroyed

Israel's military campaign across Gaza damaged or destroyed an extraordinary concentration of irreplaceable cultural sites. The Palestinian Ministry of Culture's February 2024 interim report counted 44 arts and culture workers killed, over 200 historic buildings damaged or destroyed, and 12 museums damaged — including the Gaza Museum of Archaeology. Among the losses: the Great Omari Mosque, one of the oldest in the world, and Gaza's central archive. Intangible heritage — oral traditions, craft knowledge, the community institutions that carried them — disappeared alongside the centres destroyed. The scale of documented loss drew direct comparisons to the ISIS demolition of Palmyra.