HUNDREDS OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES DESTROYED IN TEL AVIV WAR ON GAZA: ISRAEL NGO

The Omari mosque was badly damaged in the recent fighting in the territory. In the foreground are the remains of Qurans at the mosque, which dates back centuries. Alice Fordham/NPR

Sat 27 January 2024:

Hundreds of historical and archaeological sites and artefacts have been destroyed in Israel’s deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip, an Israeli group said Monday.

“We call on the government of Israel to take all possible measures to fulfil its obligations in accordance with international law and to protect cultural heritage sites and cultural properties in Gaza,” Emek Shaveh organisation said in a statement.

Gaza contains hundreds of heritage sites, including antiquities sites, historic buildings, museums, cultural centres, archives, monuments and libraries.

The Israeli NGO cited that 60 per cent of heritage sites have suffered extensive damage or have been destroyed in the Israeli war, including key historic sites such as the Al-Omari Mosque and the Church of St. Porphyry.

The statement came after a video showed an official from Israel’s Antiquities Authority (IAA) accompanying Israeli army soldiers to examine a collection of antiquities in Gaza, and appeared to be celebrating the discovery of the site.

“However, the shocking level of devastation of heritage sites in Gaza is not only a terrible loss for the people of Gaza and the Palestinian people but for all people who live in and share this land.”

Last month, Gaza’s government media office said that more than 200 archaeological and heritage sites had been destroyed in Israeli attacks on the enclave since 7 October.

Israel launched a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip following Hamas’s 7 October attacks, killing at least 25,295 Palestinians and injuring 63,000. Nearly 1,200 Israelis believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.

The Israeli offensive has left 85 per cent of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60 per cent of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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