Since Operation Swords of Iron was launched in October 2023, nearly every library, archive, and cultural centre or institution in Gaza has been destroyed or severely damaged by Israeli bombardment, firebombing and looting. A thick residue of concrete dust now covers books lining the shelves of the Gaza Municipal Library after the roof was pulverised by a missile in November. The Great Omari Mosque, which housed the Islamic Manuscript Library – one of the most important archives in Palestine, with artefacts from the 14th century – was destroyed in December. The Israeli military detonated the last remaining university building in Gaza in January.
Every ministerial archive has been destroyed. Abdul-Latif Zaki Abu Hashem is one of the last surviving historians in Gaza. In a report for the Institute of Palestine Studies, he detailed some of the enormous losses: the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs lost its registrations of centuries-old charitable endowments; the Ministry of Education lost its archival school collections and student data; the Ministry of Interior lost its archival collections of family registration documents. According to the Librarians and Archivists with Palestine’s preliminary report, public and private collections and libraries fared no better. Municipal libraries in Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoun, Rafah and Khan Younis are all gone. So too are the Samir Mansour Bookshop and Library, the Diana Tamari Sabbagh Library in the Rashad al-Shawa Cultural Center, and the Photo Kegham collection. The list goes on and on. Palestinian historians and writers – Abdul Karim Al-Hashash, Mosab Abu Toha, Samir Al-Sharif and Nahed Zaqout – have all mourned the destruction of their private libraries and collections. One of the largest publishing houses in Gaza, Al-Yazji, was ransacked and looted before it was burned.
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