AA / Ramallah / Qais Omar
Palestinian Minister of Tourism and Heritage Hani Al-Hayek said on Monday that the Israeli army has targeted more than 188 archaeological sites in the Gaza Strip since the start of the genocidal war on October 7, 2023.
Al-Hayek was speaking at a symposium in Ramallah on the theme: “The destruction of cultural heritage in Gaza.”
“188 archaeological sites in the Gaza Strip have been completely or partially destroyed following the ongoing Israeli aggression since October 7, 2023,” he detailed.
He pointed out that many museums containing finds and objects were targeted, in addition to historic mosques and churches.
The Palestinian minister accused “the Israeli occupation of deliberately targeting archaeological and historical sites with the aim of erasing the history of the Palestinian people, because archaeological and historical sites constitute an important part of the national identity of the Palestinian people and are the best proof of our history as a Palestinian people on this land.”
He described what is happening in Gaza as “an attempt by the Israeli occupation to impose a new reality, the aim of which is to destroy everything that is Palestinian, starting with man and going down to stone.”
According to the latest statistics from the Gaza Government Information Office, since October 7, 2023, Israel has totally or partially destroyed approximately 206 archaeological and heritage sites out of a total of 325 sites in the Strip, including the Omari Mosque, the third largest great mosque in Palestine, founded over 1,400 years ago, and the Church of St. Porphyry, which is the oldest church in Gaza and the third oldest church in the world, since its founding dates back to the fifth century AD.
With absolute American support, Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza since October 7, 2023, causing around 149,000 Palestinian victims, between dead and injured, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing, in a context of massive destruction and deadly famine which claimed dozens of children and elderly people, one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world.
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