In early February, the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (MOTA) released a detailed damage and risk assessment report on 316 cultural sites across Gaza, concluding that 138 had sustained severe damage—many have been reduced to rubble. The report attributes 71% of the destruction to direct Israeli air strikes and bombings, while bulldozer demolitions and tank incursions caused further damage.
Compiled by the Centre for Cultural Heritage Preservation (CCHP), with funding from the British Council’s Cultural Heritage Fund, and in collaboration with Oxford University’s Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa (EAMENA) team, it provides an overview of priorities for experts to plan their response.
The report estimates that the emergency response and mitigation efforts alone, described as phase one, would cost around €31.2m and take 12 to 18 months, while full reconstruction is projected to cost around €261m and take up to eight years.
Despite the grim findings, Palestinian heritage experts are pushing ahead with emergency efforts to document, stabilise and clear rubble from damaged historic sites, salvage archaeological stones and secure cultural landmarks. However, there is growing concern that recent US remarks about forcibly relocating Palestinians from Gaza to neighbouring countries could deter much needed donors from supporting restoration efforts.
Urgent intervention must start because heritage can’t wait, culture can’t wait
“We hope this will not be the case, but such comments risk hindering and negatively affecting financing,” Jehad Yasin, the general director of excavations and museums at MOTA, tells The Art Newspaper. “We want the US to encourage reconstruction, not obstruct it, as there is an international responsibility to assist in the recovery and rebuilding process.”
Remote monitoring
The report has drawn international attention, with experts becoming increasingly aware of the urgency of the situation, says the team leader of CCHP’s damage assessment report, Akram Lilja. “We have received interest from many international organisations eager to contribute to Gaza’s cultural heritage reconstruction,” says Lilja from Sweden, where he relocated after leaving Gaza several years ago. But he adds that many donors are waiting for the outcome of negotiations between Israel and Hamas before committing to funding.
Lilja’s team began its damage assessments during the war. When a site was inaccessible because of military operations, EAMENA offered assistance by reviewing high-resolution satellite imagery remotely. Michael Fradley, a research associate at EAMENA, warns that some data may already be out of date due to the rapidly changing situation on the ground. “Now that there’s a ceasefire, as people are clearing sites—completely understandably—it’s likely that damage will increase. You also have the issues with unexploded ordnance and possible contamination from other sources,” Fradley says, emphasising the need for continued remote monitoring.
However, he warns that monitoring Gaza remains a costly operation and more funding is required. Until 2020, a US prohibition restricted access to satellite imagery of Palestinian territories, with Fradley playing a key role in overturning the ban after years of effort. However, free high-quality imagery remains limited compared with other regions that EAMENA covers, and the organisation often has to pay for it.
Site assessments
Mahmoud Balawi, the preservation officer at the Iwan Center for Cultural Heritage and a cultural expert for CCHP, cautions that political delays are hindering the effort to save cultural sites, risking irreversible damage to Palestinian heritage.
“We must start our urgent intervention because heritage can’t wait, culture can’t wait,” Balawi says from Gaza. He explains that while the organisation has a plan, its efforts are complicated by a lack of funds and a shortage of skilled personnel with experience of working on historic sites.
Balawi points out that the Palestinian tourist ministry gathered the information for its report with only limited resources, under difficult and often dangerous conditions. He recalls a harrowing experience at the Commonwealth Cemetery in Zawaida, where mainly British soldiers who died during the First World War are buried. He and a colleague found themselves alone and surrounded by Israeli drones. Unaware that the area, marked as a safe zone, was actually a buffer zone. Convinced they were moments away from death, they still decided to complete their inspection and take photos. They returned to town safely, feeling as though they had “been born again”.
Balawi explains: “I think it is a commitment from us to our Holy Land. We think every one of these sites is like one of our children, like one of our family.” He says that the cemetery was severely damaged, and that its outer wall and gate, along with many graves, had been bulldozed. There were also signs of aerial bombardment in parts of the cemetery.
Intervention projects
Last December, Hamoudeh Al-Duhdar, the former director of sites and excavation at MOTA and a heritage expert assisting CCHP, led emergency works at Gaza City’s al-Qissariya bazaar, funded by the Dutch-based Cultural Emergency Response (CER). The efforts were crucial for protecting the site from further weather damage, particularly rainwater seeping into the old mud structures, which could lead to their collapse. The return of shopkeepers to the bazaar, despite the instability, also highlighted the urgency of the intervention.
Located next to the seventh-century Great Omari Mosque, the bazaar is essential for the livelihood of Gaza’s Christian community. It suffered additional damage when a wall from the mosque collapsed onto the area during a bombardment. Al-Duhdar’s team removed around 240 tonnes of rubble, including 20 tonnes of salvaged archaeological stones, stabilised the structures and protected key historic elements. He also led the United Nations Mine Action Service to the mosque, where it removed two unexploded missiles.
Al-Duhdar’s 12-year-old daughter, Mervat, along with his sister and her five children were all killed in December 2023 when an Israeli missile struck their home while they were asleep. “My daughter loved my work and went with me to cultural heritage sites. It is my duty to protect them, for her,” he says.
Al-Duhdar is at present overseeing emergency works at Pasha Palace, a 13th-century Mamluk-era landmark, thanks to funding from the Swiss-based Aliph Foundation. The palace, which was restored by MOTA and converted into an archaeological museum, was severely damaged by an Israeli strike in 2024. The attack also killed the wife and three children of Sayed Abdulrazeq, a MOTA museum supervisor who had moved his family there to protect both the collection and his loved ones, believing the museum would be shielded from military strikes under the 1954 Hague Convention. Abdulrazeq continues to work on cultural projects and assist CCHP.
Lilja says initial inspection of the site revealed no signs of the 60 or so boxes of artefacts that had been stored there. A more thorough investigation will be conducted as the rubble is cleared.
Palestinian patrimony
While the US President Donald Trump has called for others to rebuild Gaza, Palestinians assert they are the only ones who can lead the effort to preserve their cultural patrimony. Balawi argues that Palestinians are uniquely committed to preserving their identity through the rebuilding of their landmarks. Al-Duhdar agrees, adding: “Around the world, including the US, the indigenous people are the only people who can protect their cultural heritage.”
Sanne Letschert, the director of CER, acknowledges the concerns of Palestinians and says the organisation remains committed to their Palestinian partners as they work to protect their heritage and lead their own recovery. “There has long been a reluctance to support heritage in Palestine, even before recent US remarks, making it increasingly difficult to mobilise funding in an already underfunded field,” she says. “While donor hesitation persists in some cases, it does not deter Cultural Emergency Response.”
Letschert highlights that since the war began, CER has earmarked €212,000 for four projects. They include assisting heritage professionals and funding emergency works by CCHP at the 14th-century Younis Al-Nawruzi Castle, which was severely damaged in an Israeli air strike in 2024.
Following the release of the damage and assessment report, Letschert says CER has defined the most urgent requirements and is actively working to secure funding to support these critical efforts. “The urgency of protecting heritage at risk of disappearing makes this work more critical than ever,” she says.
Sandra Bialystok, Aliph’s director of communications and partnerships, says: “Before launching full restoration projects, we are waiting to see how the current ceasefire evolves, but also to have a more complete picture of the damage on site.”
Last year, Aliph created a $1m emergency fund to support emergency efforts aimed at safeguarding Gaza’s heritage. Bialystok confirms the fund is now being used to support projects on the ground, including stabilising the Great Omari Mosque, Al-Saqqa Palace and the Dar-Farah historic courtyard.
Aliph is also supporting efforts to secure three important archaeological sites: the ancient site of Anthedon Harbour (Gaza’s first known seaport, which is also on Unesco’s Tentative Heritage List), the Byzantine Church of Jabalia, and the Roman Cemetery, west of Jabalia, where significant archaeological artefacts have been discovered in recent years.
Fradley confirms that satellite imagery shows destruction and heavy bombardment of buildings around the cemetery, along with heavy vehicle traffic across the site. But he adds that, as with any archaeological site, the deposits that lie beneath the ground may still be intact.
The inclusion of Gaza’s historic urban fabric on the 2025 World Monuments Watch in January is likely to increase awareness and support for the enclave’s cultural heritage. It was one of 25 sites selected from over 200 nominations for the programme, which highlights cultural heritage sites at risk.
The response to Gaza’s inclusion on the 2025 World Monuments Watch has been overwhelmingly positive, according to Jonathan Bell, the vice president of programmes at the World Monuments Fund (WMF). He says: “Gaza’s cultural legacy spans approximately 12,000 years, with heritage dating back to the Neolithic era (10,000 BCE) and a wealth of internationally recognised sites from Neo-Assyrian, Greek and Roman, Byzantine, Mamluk and Ottoman periods. The World Monuments Watch has helped spark important conversations about the significance of all of this heritage and the need for active protection now and thoughtful restoration as part of any future recovery efforts.”
Bell confirms that WMF is working with partners, including Riwaq, a Palestinian organisation for the preservation of architectural heritage, to review archival documents and establish guidelines to preserve Gaza’s historic character for future recovery efforts.
However, while important data gathering and safeguarding is underway, there is growing concern over the lack of authority. Fradley says: “Will it be the Palestinian Authority? Will it be Donald Trump? There’s no centralised point to which we can help actually feed this information back.”
