The main library in the Gaza Strip has not been spared in the Israeli warfare, having been targeted during the airstrikes on Gaza City since the war’s outbreak on October 7. The extent of this tragedy was revealed during the ongoing humanitarian truce since last Friday.
Known as the Public Offices Building and managed by the Gaza City Municipality, the library housed historical documents and books, considered by the city’s residents as the memory and present of the country.
Targeting Heritage and Culture
Witnesses reported Israel’s deliberate destruction of the Public Offices Building on Al-Wehda Street in central Gaza City, annihilating historical documents and books across various sciences.
Exclusive footage obtained by Al Jazeera showed extensive damage and significant destruction of historical documents in the Central Archive Building at the Gaza City Municipality headquarters.
Gaza City Mayor Yahya Al-Sarraj condemned Israel’s targeting of historical, religious, and sovereign sites with special symbolism, including the Unknown Soldier Monument, Legislative Council, Rashad Al-Shawa Cultural Center, the Municipal Park, ancient trees, children’s centers, the Municipal Library, and others.
Gaza City Municipality spokesperson Husni Muhanna emphasized the grave impact on culture, heritage, and history, calling for intervention from cultural institutions and international condemnation to preserve the sector’s cultural and historical heritage.Gaza Strip Library Destruction
Muhanna stated that the Israeli aggression’s aim in Gaza is to spread ignorance, evident from targeting the major libraries. He highlighted that the humanitarian truce revealed the occupation’s execution of historical documents and books in various human and natural fields.
Announcement
Muhanna continued that the occupation targeted the library building, turning it into rubble through bombing, causing the burning and destruction of thousands of books, titles, and documents chronicling the city’s history and development.
He accused Israel of committing the gravest crimes against Palestinian culture, aiming to eliminate every part of Palestinian history.
Muhanna revealed the destruction of the Rashad Al-Shawa Cultural Center, one of Palestine’s oldest cultural buildings. He urged UNESCO to intervene and protect cultural centers.
The Municipality headquarters, built nearly 200 years ago, holds high symbolic value in Gaza City, the largest city in the Strip with over 800,000 inhabitants. Located in “Old Gaza,” it overlooks “Palestine Square” and is surrounded by numerous historical and archaeological sites.
Experts view the Israeli targeting of historical buildings in the besieged enclave as an attempt to uproot history and damage the city’s rich heritage, predating the establishment of the state of Israel on the ruins of historic Palestine in 1948.
Targeting Institutions and Intellectuals
Since the Israeli war on Gaza started on October 7, continuous bombing has destroyed 103 government headquarters in the Strip, including 266 schools, 67 of which are out of service, according to official statistics released last Monday.
International organizations have expressed concern about the targeting of schools and their conversion into displacement centers, affecting the educational future of Gaza’s children, numbering over 1.33 million according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics for the 2020-2021 school year.
As of November 8, the Palestinian Ministry of Culture reported that 15 creative intellectuals had been killed in the ongoing Israeli bombardment, and dozens of cultural centers destroyed.
Gaza houses 76 cultural centers, 3 theaters, 5 museums, 15 publishing houses and book centers, and 80 public libraries.
Gaza’s 145 archaeological sites, detailed in last year’s Archaeological Guide by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, are distributed across different cities in the Gaza Strip. Gaza Strip Library Destruction.
