In Gaza, Hamas levels ancient archeological site

Excavations of 4,500-year-old city stopped in 2002 because of growing security concerns

Palestinian and French archeologists began excavating Gaza’s earliest archeological site nearly 20 years ago, unearthing what they believe is a rare 4,500-year-old Bronze Age settlement.

But over protests that grew recently, Gaza’s Hamas rulers have systematically destroyed the work since seizing power a decade ago, allowing the flattening of this hill on the southern tip of Gaza City to make way for construction projects and later military bases. In its newest project, Hamas-supported bulldozers are flattening the last remnants of excavation.

“There is a clear destruction of a very important archeological site,” said Palestinian archeology and his- tory professor Mouin Sadeq, who led three excavations at the site along with French archeologist Pierre de Miroschedji after its accidental discovery in1998. “I don’t know why the destruction of the site was approved.”

Tel Es-Sakan (hill of ash) was the largest Canaanite city between Palestine and Egypt, according to Sadeq. It was named after the great amount of ash found during the excavations, which suggests the settlement was burnt either naturally or in a war.

Archeologists found the 10-hectare hill to be hiding a fortified settlement built centuries before pharaonic rule in Egypt, and 1,000 years before the pyramids. But the excavations stopped in 2002 due to security concerns.

Gaza is home to numerous ancient treasures, but politics have long complicated archeological work. Unlike more extreme Islamic groups, Hamas has not deliberately destroyed antiquities for ideological reasons.