With pickaxes and wheelbarrows, dozens of Palestinian workers in hard hats and high-visibility vests are clearing rubble
from the ruins of the Gaza Strip's oldest and largest mosque.
The broken stump of the distinctive octagonal minaret of the medieval Great Omari Mosque and a few external walls are
all that remain after it was targeted by the Israeli military during two years of war against Hamas.
Since the US-brokered ceasefire began almost eight weeks ago, work has begun to clear and sort the stones, but actual
restoration cannot yet start. Israel is not allowing building supplies to enter Gaza via the crossings, saying this is
in line with the truce agreement.
"The challenges we face are first of all scarcity of resources - iron and construction materials," says Hosni
al-Mazloum, an engineer from Riwaq, a Palestinian cultural heritage organisation. "Then we're using primitive tools...
and being very careful because the stones here are 1,200 or 1,300 years old."
In her cramped office nearby in Gaza City, Hanin al-Amsi has an equally challenging task as she pores over fragments of
rare ancient Islamic manuscripts which she has recovered from storage rooms at the Great Omari Mosque's 13th Century
"Similar to how we perform first aid for people, we are doing it for the manuscripts," the internationally trained
conservationist explains over a video link.
Ms Amsi says a young man from her department risked his life to retrieve some manuscripts when the Old City was under
intense Israeli fire early in the war. However, a treasure trove of early Islamic works was left trapped in the
Since a previous ceasefire in January that lasted two months, Ms Amsi has led a team trying to recover those manuscripts
- with funding from the British Council, the UK's cultural and educational organisation. They began work moving the
While there have been "catastrophic losses," Ms Amsi says, remarkably, some 148 out of 228 manuscripts survived. This
was largely due to her pre-war efforts, working with the British Library to preserve, archive and digitise the works.
They had been stored in acid-free boxes and kept in iron safes.
"Some pieces we recovered looked as if they hadn't spent 700 days under the rubble," comments Ms Amsi. "But others came
out looking as if a child had simply torn them to pieces." To illustrate, she holds up a box of charred scraps covered
In recent days, Ms Amsi's team was able to use heavy equipment to uncover more badly damaged manuscripts. She says it is
now clear that the library's archive - seen as an invaluable record of Palestinian history, with many Ottoman records -
Palestinians accuse Israel of deliberately targeting their heritage sites - a war crime. Israel rejects that, saying it
acts in accordance with international law.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) blame Hamas for the destruction of important historic monuments and collections, saying
that the armed group acted "in the vicinity of, or beneath, cultural heritage sites." At the Great Omari Mosque, the IDF
say they bombed "a tunnel shaft and terror tunnel".
The frantic race to save Gaza's historic treasures from Israeli bombs
Unesco has verified damage to 145 religious, historic and cultural sites in Gaza since 7 October 2023, when Hamas-led
attacks on Israel triggered the war. It has largely used assessments from satellite imagery. Local groups which have
carried out ground surveys put the level of damage far higher.
Gaza's history stretches back more than 5,000 years. Different civilisations have left their mark: Canaanites, ancient
Egyptians, Philistines, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Jewish Hasmoneans, Romans, Christian Byzantines, and Muslim Mamluks
At another location in Gaza City's Old City, a team of young men is removing buckets of sand and crumbled mortar from
what is left of the 800-year-old Pasha's Palace - exposing the geometric patterns of a mosaic floor.
"What is being done is just the minimum" says Issam Juha, director of the Centre for Cultural Heritage Preservation
(CCHP), which is based in the occupied West Bank and is helping coordinate the work remotely. "For even basic
interventions to be done we need cement or lime mortar which is not available."
This historic fortress is where Napoleon Bonaparte stayed in 1799. In more recent times, it had been renovated and
turned into an impressive museum displaying prized artefacts from French-led archaeological excavations.
"We are dealing with a building that expresses the identity and memory of the Palestinian people," says Dr Hamouda
al-Dahdar, a cultural heritage expert who is leading the on-site restoration effort. "We're determined to preserve
what's left of this important landmark."
The IDF told me it had no information about why the Pasha's Palace was targeted in the war. Locals say it was hit by an
Israeli air strike and later bulldozed.
Trained labourers are now searching for some 17,000 artefacts that were kept at the site. Most have been crushed or
looted. So far, only about 30 have been recovered from the rubble, including a piece of a Byzantine sarcophagus lid and
The work being done is providing desperately needed employment in Gaza, with local cultural groups getting support from
international non-governmental organisations.
The Geneva-based Aliph Foundation has given $700,000 (£524,000) for emergency work in Gaza since 2024 and says its
experts have near daily contact with teams on the ground.
The British Council says that following the recent ceasefire, its partners are carrying out new damage assessments and
safety checks "to understand what future heritage work might be possible".
"There are many archaeological sites that we simply can't reach because of the presence of the Israeli army," says
leading Gazan archaeologist Fadel el-Otol, who continues to follow developments from Switzerland where he is currently
He cites the Roman cemeteries and the Byzantine Church east of Jabalia camp, in the north - key locations where he
headed excavations - which lie in the 53% of the strip still under full Israeli control.