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

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 organization reckons some 41 historic sites have been damaged since Israel began pounding the besieged territory after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. On the ground, Palestinian archeologist 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 mobilized to watch over the territory’s vast array of ancient sites and monuments. As a teenager in the 1990s, Otol was hired by European archeological missions before going on to study in Switzerland and at the Louvre Museum in Paris.

“All the archeological remains in the north have been hit,” he said. The human toll since the October 7 Hamas attack has been chilling. “Blakhiya (the ancient Greek city of Anthedon) was directly bombed. There’s a huge hole,” said Otol. 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.