Gaza’s historic treasures saved by ‘irony of history’

JERUSALEM: Gaza’s ancient Greek site of Anthedon has been bombed, its “Napoleon’s Palace” destroyed and the only private museum burned down: the war has taken a terrible toll on the rich heritage of the Palestinian territory.

But in a strange twist of fate, some of its greatest historical treasures are safe in a warehouse in Switzerland.

And ironically, it is all thanks to the blockade that made life in the Gaza Strip such a struggle for the past 16 years.

Based on satellite images, the UN cultural organisation reckons some 41 historic sites have been damaged since Israel began pounding the besieged territory ater the Oct.7 atack.

On the ground, Palestinian archaeologist Fadel Al Otol keeps tabs on the destruction in real time.

When he has electricity and internet access, photos pour into a Whatsapp group he set up with 40 or so young peers he mobilised to watch over the territory’s vast array of ancient sites and monuments.

As a teenager in the 1990s, Otol was hired by European archaeological missions before going on to study in Switzerland and at the Louvre Museum in Paris.

“All the archaeological remains in the north have been hit,” he told AFP by phone from Gaza.

Almost 34,000 have died in Gaza in unrelenting Israeli retaliation, according to the territory’s health ministry.

The damage to Gaza’s history has also been immense.

“Blakhiya (the ancient Greek city of Anthedon) wasdirectlybombed.there’sahugehole,”saidotol.

He said part of the site, near a Hamas barracks where “we hadn’t started excavating,” was hit.

The 13th-century Al-basha palace in Gaza City’s old town “has been completely destroyed. There was bombing and (then) it was bulldozed.

“It held hundreds of ancient objects and magnificent sarcophagi,” Otol added as he shared recent photos of the ruins.

Napoleon is said to have based himself in the ochre stone edifice at the disastrous end of his

Egyptian campaign in 1799.

The room where the French emperor supposedly slept was full of Byzantine artefacts.

“Our best finds were displayed in the Basha,” Jean-baptiste Humbert of the French Biblical and Archaeological School in Jerusalem (EBAF) said.

But we know litle of their fate, he said. “Did someone remove the objects before blowing the building up?”

Nerves were frayed even further when the director of Israeli Antiquities, Eli Escusido, posted a video on Instagram of Israeli soldiers surrounded by vases and ancient potery in the EBAF warehouse in Gaza City.