The Israeli Army destroyed some 200 historic buildings and archaeological and heritage sites in Gaza in the more than two and a half months of offensive on the strip, the Government Communication Office, controlled by the Islamist group, said today. .

The destruction of these sites represents more than half of the total of 325 historical sites in the enclave, and includes “old mosques, churches, schools, museums, old houses and various heritage sites”, which represents an attempt “to erase the presence Palestinian cultural and heritage,” added the same source.

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Among the buildings destroyed during the war is the Al Omari Mosque in Gaza, the largest and oldest in the strip, as well as the Otman Bin Qashqar Mosque, another of the oldest temples in the enclave, both in the old town of the City. from Gaza.

There was also part of the Byzantine Christian heritage of the Strip that suffered damage or was destroyed, such as the Byzantine church of Jabalia or the Orthodox church of Saint Porphyry, in Gaza City, which in November suffered an Israeli bombardment that left twenty people dead. of dead Christians who took refuge inside.

Saint Porphyry was the oldest church still active in Gaza City, it was among the three oldest in the world and its original construction dated back to the 5th century.

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Another of the buildings that has been destroyed is the central archive in Gaza City, where ancient manuscripts and documents were stored that bore witness to its history.

“The heritage and archaeological sites that were destroyed dated back to the Phoenician era, some to Roman times, some to 800 BC,” others “1,400 years ago” and some to 400 years ago, reported the Government Press Office. from Gaza.

He added that the Israeli attacks against centenary or millennia-old heritage in Gaza are “a clear international crime” that also violates the 1954 Hague Convention on the protection of cultural property in episodes of armed conflict.

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