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Situated at the junction between Africa and Asia, Gaza is a critical archaeological landscape. But the region’s heritage is currently facing an unprecedented risk of loss.
Alongside the widespread loss of life, homes and livelihoods in the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of the Hamas attack on Israel of October 7 2023, the rich cultural heritage of the region has been laid waste by military strikes and intentional demolition.
As Israeli military attacks continue, it is not possible to provide a definitive assessment. But at present, based on our experience documenting the area, we can confidently estimate that around 50% of heritage sites in the Gaza Strip have been damaged, with many structures near-demolished.
Even before October 2023, the historic environment of the Gaza Strip was already perilous due to decades of extreme economic and land pressures. And its heritage protection has been chronically underfunded.
We are part of a partnership between the Palestinian Department of Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, the Bethlehem-based Centre for Cultural Heritage Protection (CCHP) and the universities of Oxford, Southampton and Bradford. We have been gathering information to develop a more comprehensive inventory of heritage sites across Gaza to assess their changing condition. Constructing such a list is significantly more difficult during times of war.
This work is helping report on the extensive conflict damage to the cultural heritage of Gaza. It will be available to support heritage protection once there is a ceasefire and physical reconstruction can begin.
Gathering information in a war zone
Our partnership has been bringing together data on various archaeological sites and historic buildings that have previously been identified across the Gaza Strip. This includes critical information from heritage professionals based in the region.
We have also conducted archival research. This has identified archaeological sites that were recorded during the British mandate period (when the UK took direct control of the region between 1920 and 1948) but have not been subsequently investigated. We have also worked to add details of historic buildings, especially the vernacular architecture of houses and other buildings from the Ottoman period. The heritage value of these buildings had not previously been recognised by specialists.
The ground assessments have been coordinated by the CCHP. Its partners in the Gaza Strip have been able to visit sites in areas deemed temporary safe zones by the Israeli military.
These visits are often very limited by the time available and the conditions on the ground. This includes unsafe semi-demolished buildings, the potential for unexploded ordnance, and environmental contamination. Where possible, heritage professionals make notes about site conditions. They take photographs where it is safe to do so.
Our ability to remotely assess damage to the Gaza Strip using satellite imagery (as is often undertaken in conflict environments) has been further hampered by the legacy of US government restrictions. Until 2020, this meant that imaging companies in the US could only produce imagery of this area at a significantly lower resolution than the rest of the world. But even with the lessening of restrictions, very little new imagery has been added to open access platforms like Google Earth.
While limits on imagery have been lowered in recent years, no open access provider has updated their coverage of Israel or Palestine since before October 7 2023. This has left researchers dependent on purchasing commercial satellite imagery. And those operators have self-imposed further limitations on the use of these images.
In general, we avoid categorising sites as “destroyed”. That’s because even where buildings have been levelled, there may be subsurface, partially preserved archaeological features. But given current reports on the scale of Israeli attacks, it is realistic to assume that the scale of destruction across the Gaza Strip will only increase.
What future is there for Gaza’s past?
In the long term, our partnership will provide an extensive list of heritage sites across the Gaza Strip. This can then form the basis for future management of the historic environment, as well as for any future emergency assessments.
This is starting to happen already. A recent news report on Gaza’s heritage used parts of our datasets. Details from the report will now be fed back into the EAMENA database of endangered archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa.
This conflict will not eradicate the heritage of Gaza. These buildings have been repeatedly restored and rebuilt over more than a century since the area was first devastated by modern warfare. But for now, monitoring must continue. We need to consider how to best reassess sites in northern Gaza as Israel escalates its attacks in this area, and severely restricts reporting of the devastation caused.
Michael Fradley receives funding from the Arcadia Fund.
Bill Finlayson receives funding from Arcadia Fund and the British Council’s Cultural Protection Fund.
Andrew Petersen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
