Palestinians scramble to save centuries-old books and manuscripts before they are lost

Brushing away layers of soot and dust, archaeologist Hanin Al-Amassi examines the brittle pages of a manuscript carrying the weight of Gaza's history.

The item once sat in the Omari Mosque, one of Gaza's oldest and most revered landmarks in the heart of Gaza City's old quarter.

Covering 4100 square metres and with a courtyard of 1190 square metres, the site was once a cornerstone of Gaza's religious and cultural life until it was flattened during more than 15 months of Israeli attacks on the strip.

Now a restoration team from Gaza's Ministry of Religious Endowments is painstakingly retrieving historical manuscripts, rare volumes, and archival documents — some nearly 700 years old — from beneath the rubble.

"The collection spans diverse fields of knowledge, from astrology to literature, and is adorned with exquisite calligraphy," Al-Amassi told the ABC.

Working with scant resources but unyielding resolve, Al-Amassi is leading the efforts to salvage what fragments she can.

"These manuscripts embody the historic memory and cultural heritage destined for future generations," she said.

"They reflect the intellectual legacy of Gaza's scholars, among them Sheikh Othman al-Sabbah, Sheikh Mohammad Bsesso, Sheikh Nakhala, and Alam al-Karam.

"Gaza is one of the oldest cities in Palestine, a crossroads where countless civilisations have left their mark."

The Mosque had endured repeated damage in previous rounds of Israeli bombardments well before the current war, which was triggered by Hamas' deadly 7 October, 2023 attacks.

But this latest assault obliterated the historic site, leaving behind only fragments of stone and memory.

The Omari Mosque's western flank was once home to a library established more than 700 years ago and considered the third-largest in Palestine.

Before the bombs fell it housed some 20,000 volumes, including a vast collection of Islamic manuscripts from monumental works to slim scholarly treatises, with the oldest dating to 1514.

Among its most prized holdings was Sharh al-Ghawamid fi Ilm al-Faraid, a manuscript written by renowned scholar Badr al-Din al-Mardini, who was known for his contributions to astronomy and mathematics.

"The 500-year-old text on Islamic inheritance law was preserved in the Great Omari Mosque library in Gaza," according to one of the prominent custodians of the library, who preferred to remain anonymous.

"[It] stands out for its cultural and scholarly significance."

In the wake of the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October the library was forced to close its doors.

Two months later, on 8 December, Israeli air strikes reduced the Great Omari Mosque and its library to dust.

"The site was struck at least three times by heavy Israeli bombardment. It was a deliberate attempt to erase cultural heritage," Al-Amassi said.

The remnants of the library's collection were left buried among the rubble for more than 500 days during Israel's war.

When a ceasefire went into effect in Gaza in October, Al-Amassi and her team carried out a recovery operation to salvage the manuscripts buried beneath collapsed stone and steel.

The team salvaged 123 of the 228 manuscripts, as well as 78 loose pages.

Of the items that were retrieved 36 were miraculously preserved.

Most of the works date to the Mamluk and Ottoman eras, spanning five to seven centuries.

Once retrieved, Al-Amassi's team immediately began the preservation process, including painstakingly brushing away mould, stabilising the fragile paper, and restoring what remained to its pre-war state.

"Many of these works bear the scars of destruction — damaged by humidity, fungus, tearing, and even marks of direct missile strikes," she said.

The Ministry of Religious Endowments reports that 1109 of Gaza's 1244 mosques were either completely destroyed or severely damaged during the war.

Officials described it as the largest cultural and religious loss in the territory's history.

The Church of Saint Porphyrius, an Eastern Orthodox place of worship in the Zeitoun neighbourhood in the heart of Gaza City, was bombed several times and badly damaged.

It is the oldest church in the city with roots dating back 1600 years, and is believed to be the final resting place of its namesake the fifth-century bishop of Gaza.

Saint Porphyrius and the nearby Holy Family Church, the only Catholic church in Gaza, have provided shelter for hundreds of civilians during the war.

Demands to evacuate the two compounds have been rejected by the Greek Orthodox and Latin Patriarchs of Jerusalem.

"I devoted my life to collecting and preserving artefacts — but now, in Gaza, the only thing that truly matters is saving what remains of human life," said Jawdat Khoudari, a founder of the now destroyed private Gazan museum Al-Mathaf.

Palestinian health authorities say Israel's ground and air campaign against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip has killed more than 69,000 people, with nearly one-third of the dead under the age of 18.

Israel has disputed the figures but has not provided its own data or allowed foreign media to independently access Gaza to document the destruction.

While the physical remnants of Gaza's history have been lost in Israel's bombardment, there has been one glimmer of hope for archaeologists.

From 2019 to 7 October, 2023, Al-Amassi said her team were digitising the manuscripts from the Omari Mosque library's collection.

The project was done in a collaboration with the British Library and the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library based on the campus of Saint John's University in Minnesota.

"These archives were made accessible to researchers worldwide with an interest in the subject," Al-Amassi said.

Yet there is still a deep grief over what has been lost.

Khoudari said he no longer had hope of salvaging any of the treasures that were once housed in his private museum in Gaza, or others scattered across the strip.

"There is zero chance we can save any artefacts from Gaza — it's over," he said from his home in Cairo, where he found refuge a year ago.

"What happens to the children is more important than archaeological artefacts.

"I feel ashamed to talk about artefacts when people are starving."

Khoudari's interest in antiquities took shape in the 1990s during the construction boom in Gaza which followed the Oslo peace accords and accompanied the rise of the Palestinian Authority.

The surge in building activity unearthed thousands of artefacts, many dating back to the Byzantine era.

Marc-André Haldemann, curator at Geneva's Museum of Art and History, was struck by the discoveries and invited Khoudari to curate a major exhibition in Switzerland.

By late 2006, some 260 pieces from Khoudari's collection were on display.

Nearly a year later Hamas seized control of Gaza, prompting Israel to impose its blockade, which made the return of Khoudari's artefacts to the enclave virtually impossible.

A small portion of the collection, preserved by chance, was on display at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris until 2 November.

Khoudari argued European countries that once led excavations and archaeological missions in Gaza had now turned their backs on it.

"There is virtually no interest in preserving our heritage," he said.

On 11 September, 2025, a dedicated mission rushed to preserve a substantial part of Gaza's archaeological heritage.

The previous day, the IDF issued an evacuation order for the Al-Kawthar high-rise building in Gaza City where most Gaza artefacts were stored.

Under the imminent threat of bombing, 180 square metres of treasures were urgently evacuated in a mission coordinated by the French Biblical and Archaeological School of Jerusalem.

The collection had been gathered from the five main archaeological sites in the Gaza Strip, including the Saint Hilarion Monastery, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Brother Olivier Poquillon, the school's director, told the ABC that the operation was conducted in secrecy out of an "overriding concern, as a religious organisation, for not putting human lives at risk".

"Israel is a signatory to the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its First Protocol, both of which oblige member states to safeguard historic and cultural heritage during times of war," he said.

"We used this argument to convince Israel to let us save the artefacts.

"The archive contains 30 years of research and archaeological excavations, representing scientific value beyond measure."

The artefacts have been transported in six trucks and stored in a safe place, its exact location kept secret.

Now, with some of these invaluable treasures saved, salvaged, and hidden away, and others beyond recovery, the future of Gaza's heritage remains uncertain and could be lost.