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

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This combination of pictures created on January 11, 2024, shows Gaza City's Omari Mosque on January 5, 2024, the oldest mosque in Gaza, damaged in Israeli bombardment during the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement(L) and a file picture of a Palestinian man reading the Koran in the courtyard of the same mosque on the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on March 23, 2023. (AFP)
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This picture taken on April 21, 2021 shows an exterior view of Qasr al-Basha in Gaza City, where Napoleon Bonaparte slept for several nights during his campaign in Egypt and Palestine. (AFP)
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A picture taken on January 5, 2024 shows Gaza City's 17th century Qasr al-Basha or the Pasha's Palace, also known as Radwan dynasty castle, which houses a museum and a girls'school, damaged in Israeli bombardment during the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (AFP)
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Artifacts are on display in the first ever National Museum of Archaeology in Gaza opend recently by Jawdat Khoudary, a Palestinian businessman and collector, on July 28, 2008. (AFP)
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A Palestinian worker inspects the ancient archaeological site of Anthedon Harbour, also know as "al-Blakhiyah", which is located next to a training site for Hamas military, in Gaza City on April 25, 2013. (AFP)
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Updated 16 April 2024
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Gaza’s historic treasures saved by ‘irony of history’

  • Israel has killed more than 33,797 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory
  • A Palestinian worker inspects the ancient archaeological site of Anthedon Harbour, also know as "al-Blakhiyah", which is located next to a training site for Hamas military, in Gaza City on April 25, 2013

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 organization reckons some 41 historic sites have been damaged since Israel began pounding the besieged territory after the October 7 Hamas attack.




This combination of pictures created on January 11, 2024, shows a file picture of the 17th century Qasr al-Basha in Gaza City on April 21, 2021, where Napoleon Bonaparte slept for several nights during his campaign in Egypt and Palestine (bottom), and the same building severely damaged in Israeli bombardment during the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinians. (AFP)

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 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 archaeological missions before going on to study in Switzerland and at the Louvre Museum in Paris.




This combination of pictures shows one taken on January 5, 2024 of Gaza City's historic Hammam Al-Samra, which used to be the only active traditional Turkish bath remaining in Gaza, located in the Zeitun quarter of the old city before it was destroyed in Israeli bombardment during the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement and another one (L) dating back to December 4, 2005 with Palestinian youths relaxing in the same steam bath. (AFP)

“All the archaeological remains in the north have been hit,” he told AFP by phone from Gaza.
The human toll since the October 7 Hamas attack has been chilling.
A total of 1,170 people were killed in the unprecedented raid on Israel, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
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.




Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas views pottery specimens during his visit to the exhibition "Gaza, at the crossroad of civilizations" at the Art and History Museum in Geneva on April 26, 2007. (AFP)

“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.




Artifacts are on display in the first ever National Museum of Archaeology in Gaza opend recently by Jawdat Khoudary, a Palestinian businessman and collector, on July 28, 2008. (AFP)

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) told AFP.
But we know little 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 pottery in the EBAF warehouse in Gaza City.
Much of what has been unearthed in digs in Gaza was stored either at the Al-Basha museum or the warehouse.
Palestinians quickly accused the army of pillaging. But EBAF archaeologist Rene Elter said he has seen no evidence of “state looting.”
“My colleagues were able to return to the site. The soldiers opened boxes. We don’t know if they took anything,” he told AFP.
However, he added: “Every day when Fadel (al-Otol) calls me, I’m afraid he’ll tell me that one of our colleagues has died or that such and such a site has been destroyed.”
Archaeology is a highly political issue in Israel and the Palestinian territories, with discoveries often used to justify the claims of the two warring peoples.
While Israel has an army of archaeologists who have unearthed an impressive number of ancient treasures, Gaza remains relatively untouched by the trowel despite a rich past stretching back thousands of years.

The only sheltered natural harbor between the Sinai and Lebanon, Gaza has been for centuries a crossroads of civilizations.
A pivot point between Africa and Asia and a hub of the incense trade, it was coveted by the Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, Romans and Ottomans.
A key figure in excavating this glorious past over the last few decades has been Jawdat Khoudary, a Gazan construction magnate and collector.
Gaza, with its “seafront real estate,” had a property boom in the 1990s after the Oslo peace accords and the creation of the Palestinian Authority.
When building workers dug up the soil, they came across lots and lots of ancient objects. Khoudary amassed a treasure trove of artefacts that he opened up to foreign archaeologists.
Marc-Andre Haldimann, then curator of MAH, Geneva’s art and history museum, couldn’t believe his eyes when he was invited to have a look around the garden of Khoudary’s mansion in 2004.
“We found ourselves in front of 4,000 objects, including an avenue of Byzantine columns,” he told AFP.
Quickly an idea took shape to organize a major exhibition to highlight Gaza’s past at the MAH, and then to build a museum in the territory itself so that the Palestinians could take ownership of their own heritage.
At the end of 2006, around 260 objects from the Khoudary collection left Gaza for Geneva, with some later going on to be part of another hit show at the Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA) in Paris.
But geopolitics changed along the way. In June 2007, Hamas drove the Palestinian Authority from Gaza. And Israel imposed its blockade.
As a result, the Gazan artefacts could no longer return home and remained stuck in Geneva, while the archaeological museum project fizzled out.
But Khoudary did not give up hope. He built a museum-hotel called Al-Mathaf, museum in Arabic, on the Mediterranean coast north of Gaza City.
But then came the Israeli ground offensive after the Hamas attack on October 7, which began in Gaza’s north.

“Al-Mathaf remained under Israeli control for months,” Khoudary, who fled Gaza for Egypt, told AFP. “As soon as they left, I asked some people to go there to see what state the place was in. I was shocked. Several items were missing and the hall had been set on fire.
His mansion was also destroyed during fierce fighting in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City.
“The Israelis flattened the garden with bulldozers... I don’t know whether objects were buried (by the bulldozers) or whether the marble columns were broken or looted. I can’t find words,” he added.
The Israeli military did not comment on specific sites. But it accused Hamas of systematically using civilian structures like cultural heritage sites, government buildings, schools, shelters and hospitals for military purposes.
“Israel maintains its commitments to international law, including by affording the necessary special protections,” the army added in a statement.
While part of Khoudary’s collection has been lost, the treasures held in Switzerland remain intact, saved by the blockade and the red tape that delayed their return.
“There were 106 crates ready to go” for years, said Beatrice Blandin, the MAH museum’s current curator.
Safely far from the war raging in Gaza, “the objects are in good condition,” she added. “We restored some of the bronze pieces that were slightly corroded and repacked everything.
“We just had to be sure that the convoy would not be blocked,” she told AFP. “We were waiting for that green light.”
But with any return impossible for the moment, Blandin said “discussions are under way” for a new Gaza exhibition in Switzerland.
Khoudary is excited by the idea.
“The most important collection of objects on the history of Gaza is in Geneva. If there is a new show, it will allow the whole world to learn about our history,” he told AFP from Cairo.
“It’s an irony of history,” said Haldimann, who is trying to get his friend Fadel Al-Otol safely out of Gaza.
“A new Gaza exhibition would show once again that Gaza... is anything but a black hole.”

The children in Israel’s prisons
Ongoing hostage-for-prisoners exchange opens the world’s eyes to arrests, interrogations, and even abuse of Palestinian children by Israeli authorities

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US says Israel to open new Gaza crossing as aid deadline looms

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US says Israel to open new Gaza crossing as aid deadline looms

Israel has informed the United States that it will open an additional crossing for aid into Gaza, the State Department said Thursday, as a US-imposed deadline looms next week.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have given Israel until November 13 to improve the humanitarian situation in the war-besieged Gaza Strip or risk the withholding of some military assistance from the United States, Israel’s biggest supporter.
They made the demands in a letter before Tuesday’s election of President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised to give freer rein to Israel.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that Israel, after recently reopening the Erez crossing, has informed the United States that they “hope to open an additional new crossing at Kissufim” in “the next few days.”
“We have continued to press them, and we have seen them, including in the past few days since the election, take additional steps,” Miller told reporters.
He stopped short of saying how the United States would assess Israel’s compliance with the aid demands.
In the letter, Blinken and Austin had urged Israel to “consistently” let aid through four major crossings and to open a fifth crossing.
Kissufim, near a kibbutz across from southern Gaza that was attacked in the October 7, 2023 Hamas assault that sparked the war, has mostly been in disuse except by the military since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.
The letter called for a minimum of 350 trucks per day to be allowed into Gaza. Miller said 229 trucks entered on Tuesday.
Outgoing President Joe Biden has repeatedly pressed Israel to improve humanitarian aid and protect civilians, while mostly stopping short of using leverage such as cutting off weapons.
Miller said Blinken hoped to keep using the rest of his term to press for an end to the wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

France mulling new sanctions on Israeli settlers, minister says in West Bank

Updated 28 min 39 sec ago
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France mulling new sanctions on Israeli settlers, minister says in West Bank

  • “France has been a driving force to establish the first sanction regime at the European level,” Barrot said
  • Barrot renewed France’s commitment to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

RAMALLAH: France is mulling new sanctions on those enabling the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, regarded as illegal under international law, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on a visit to the territory on Thursday.
“France has been a driving force to establish the first sanction regime at the European level targeting individuals or entities, either actors or accomplices of settlement activities,” Barrot said after talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Ramallah.
“This regime has been activated two times already and we’re working on a third batch of sanctions targeting these activities that again are illegal with respect to international law.”
Barrot renewed France’s commitment to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and warned settlement activities “threaten the political perspective that can ensure durable peace for Israel and Palestine.”
Before meeting Abbas, Barrot visited the adjacent town of Al-Bireh, where Israeli settlers set fire to 20 cars on Monday, damaging a nearby building.
After speaking with residents and local officials at the scene, Barrot noted that the attack took place in a part of the West Bank where the Palestinians were supposed to enjoy both civil and security control under the Oslo Accords of the 1990s.
“These attacks from extremist and violent settlers are not only completely inexcusable, not only contrary to international law, but they weaken the perspective of a two-state solution,” Barrot said.
Ramallah and Al-Bireh governor Laila Ghannam expressed outrage that settler attacks were “taking place in full view and hearing of the entire silent international community.”
“Perhaps today, with the visit of the French foreign minister, there will be a spotlight here,” she told AFP.
Speaking in Jerusalem earlier Thursday, Barrot said he saw prospects for ending Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon after Donald Trump’s re-election, citing the Republican’s “wish to see the end of the Middle East’s endless wars” as well as recent “tactical successes” for Israel.


Moroccan population grows to 36.8 million in 2024

The Moroccan population grew by 2.98 million since the last census in 2014. (AFP)
Updated 07 November 2024
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Moroccan population grows to 36.8 million in 2024

RABAT: The Moroccan population grew to 36.82 million by September 2024, according to the preliminary results of a national census, the spokesman for the government said on Thursday.
Compared with the most recent census in 2014, the Moroccan population grew by 2.98 million or 8.8 percent, spokesman Mustapha Baitas told reporters.
The number of households grew to 9.27 million by September 2024, up 26.8 percent compared to 2014, while the number of foreigners living in the country increased to 148,152, up 71.8 percent, he said.


Israel escalates attacks on Lebanon as strikes hit near Beirut airport

A rescuer and a member of the Malaysian battalion of UNIFIL treat a soldier wounded in an Israeli airstrike near Sidon. (AFP)
Updated 49 min 29 sec ago
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Israel escalates attacks on Lebanon as strikes hit near Beirut airport

  • Drone strike near Sidon kills three and injures Lebanese soldiers and UN peacekeepers
  • Former Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah’s uncle and family members also killed

BEIRUT: At least 10 people were killed in Lebanon on Thursday in Israeli drone attacks on roads across the south, Mount Lebanon and Bekaa.

Former Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah’s uncle and his family members were also killed by strikes in southern Lebanon.

In Baalbek-Hermel, dozens of victims were laid to rest. They died trapped under the rubble of several flattened buildings, some adjacent to the Baalbek Temple.

In the afternoon, an Israeli strike targeted Tyre.

An Israeli drone hit a car on the Araya road in Mount Lebanon, killing the driver, a 30-year-old woman, making her Israel’s first female target.

Doaa Mattar’s family said that they lost contact with their daughter at the time of the raid.

A relative said that Mattar had taken her friend’s car to drive her family from Beirut to Bhamdoun.

Her body was taken to Hezbollah’s Al-Rassoul Al-Azam Hospital, while two injured passersby — a man and his grandson — were transported to the Sacre Coeur Hospital.

Hours later, another Israeli drone targeted a car on the Awali River road at the entrance to the city of Sidon, south of Beirut.

The strike killed three people inside the vehicle, injured three Lebanese soldiers at a nearby checkpoint and damaged several cars, including a passing UNIFIL convoy bus.

It resulted in five minor injuries among Malaysian UNIFIL soldiers and two civilian injuries.

Meanwhile, Beirut’s southern suburb experienced a violent night of airstrikes that continued until the early hours of Thursday morning, targeting Haret Hreik, Burj Al-Barajneh, Tahwitat Al-Ghadir and Ouzai.

One of the strikes came close to a runway at Beirut airport, causing damage to facilities.

However, airport operations continued, with Middle East Airlines switching to alternative runways for landing minutes after Israel issued evacuation warnings.

All planes heading for Beirut landed shortly before midnight ahead of the Israeli-imposed deadline.

The airstrikes on the southern suburb of Beirut caused extensive damage to residential buildings, shops, schools, social facilities and health centers.

A week of relative calm in Beirut’s southern suburb was shattered as warning sirens caused recently returned residents to flee north.

Many families were forced on to the streets, waiting in their vehicles at a safe distance from the targeted areas.

The Israeli military claimed to have conducted precision strikes against Hezbollah command centers and military infrastructure in the Lebanese capital, according to military spokesman Avichay Adraee.

Israel’s systematic destruction of southern Lebanese towns continued with renewed intensity. Israeli forces reportedly rigged and detonated entire neighborhoods in the border town of Mays Al-Jabal.

Israeli warplanes conducted strikes on the outskirts of Yahmar Al-Shaqif near the Litani River, hitting the town center and eastern areas. The predominantly Christian town of Rmeish, whose residents have steadfastly refused to leave, was also targeted.

In Jbaa, located in the Tuffah region, airstrikes caused significant damage. A separate strike on Bazouriye killed four members of Nasrallah’s extended family, including his uncle, cousins and their grandson.

Reports indicate that Israeli forces used internationally prohibited cluster bombs in their targeting of agricultural fields.

The scope of destruction has reached unprecedented levels in Nabatieh, where medical facilities, businesses, institutions, warehouses and residential buildings have been severely damaged.

Footage shared on social media revealed that entire neighborhoods had been turned into rubble.

Violent clashes erupted on Wednesday evening between Hezbollah fighters and Israeli forces near Rmeish and Yaroun, opposite the Dovev settlement.

Exchanges of fire were also reported near Aita Al-Shaab when Israeli forces attempted to advance into Lebanese territory.

The death and injury toll continues to mount, with the Bekaa region alone reporting 60 casualties, with dozens wounded.

Scenes of mass burials echoed those from Gaza. Among the dead are multiple generations of families, including the Abu Asbar family, who lost parents, children, grandchildren and in-laws during a single Israeli strike.

The attacks have also threatened Lebanon’s cultural heritage, with damage reported near the historic Baalbek Castle complex and the century-old Al-Manshieh building, known for its cultural artifacts.

The Palmyra Hotel, which has hosted decades of Baalbek festivals, also sustained damage.

Baalbek Mayor Mustafa Al-Shall said: “The enemy is targeting poor and residential neighborhoods, and it did not spare archaeological, heritage and historical sites. The number of martyrs in Baalbek is very high.”

One Israeli strike targeted soldier Raed Dandash, born in 2003, as he was driving his car in the town of Talia, in the Bekaa.

An official statement said: “Along with Raed, the strike killed his sister Nathalie and his brother Mohammed, while their mother was seriously injured.”

Airstrikes hit new areas in northern Bekaa, including the towns of Fakeha and Harfouch, killing one.

Lebanon’s officials were shocked by the attacks that targeted the vicinity of Baalbek Castle.

Culture Minister Mohammed Wissam Mortada sent an urgent appeal to UNESCO chief Audrey Azoulay through the head of Lebanon’s permanent mission to the organization, Mustafa Deeb, to “save the castle.”

Several MPs also sent a letter to Azoulay, calling on the international organization to “protect the common heritage of humanity.”

In the letter, MP Najat Saliba called for “the protection of historical sites in Lebanon, especially Baalbek, Tyre, Sidon and other valuable landmarks that are in grave danger due to the escalation of atrocities.”

She said: “These landmarks are priceless not only for our nation but for humanity. They are facing a growing danger with the escalation of the war. Their protection is a responsibility that needs to be assumed in order to preserve a part of human civilization that belongs to our common global and international heritage.”

One building destroyed by Israeli strikes bore an etching showing the year 1928. It was once frequented by French officers during France’s rule over the country.

The Israeli army announced that one of its soldiers “was killed in battles in southern Lebanon, while 60 Hezbollah members were killed during the past 24 hours.”

Hezbollah issued a statement calling on settlers in northern Israel to leave their settlements, warning that they had become become military targets.


Iran’s Pezeshkian says Tehran indifferent to US election result

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran's priority is to develop relations with Islamic and neighboring countries. (AFP/Fi
Updated 07 November 2024
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Iran’s Pezeshkian says Tehran indifferent to US election result

  • Pezeshkian says ‘it does not matter’ to Iran who won US election
  • Iran government spokesperson plays down importance of Trump

DUBAI: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said the result of the US election did not matter to his country, state media reported on Thursday, amid heightened tensions with Washington over its support for Iran’s arch-enemy, Israel.
Donald Trump’s return to the White House following his election victory this week could mean tougher enforcement of US oil sanctions against Iran, which he initiated in 2018 after quitting a nuclear pact between Tehran and global powers.
The Biden administration has strongly supported Israel in its wars against the Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon as well as Israeli actions against Iran itself.
Some analysts believe Trump will give Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a greater free hand in dealing with Iran.
“To us it does not matter at all who has won the American election, because our country and system relies on its inner strength and a great and honorable nation,” Pezeshkian said late on Wednesday, quoted by the state news agency IRNA.
It was his first comment on Trump’s election victory.
“We will not be close-minded in developing our relations with other countries (while) we have made it our priority to develop relations with Islamic and neighboring countries,” Pezeshkian said.
It was not immediately clear if Pezeshkian was also referring to the United States, with which Iran does not have diplomatic relations. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in all matters of state, has banned holding any direct talks with the United States.
An Iranian government spokesperson earlier played down the importance of the US election, while a Revolutionary Guards commander voiced readiness for confrontation.
The Iranian leaders’ main concern is the potential for Trump to empower Netanyahu to strike Iran’s nuclear sites, conduct assassinations and reimpose his “maximum pressure” policy through heightened sanctions on the country’s oil industry.
Some, however, suspect Trump will be cautious about the possibility of war.
In 2018, the then-Trump administration exited Iran’s 2015 nuclear pact with six world powers and reimposed harsh sanctions on Iran, prompting Tehran to violate the pact’s nuclear limits.
International sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear program forced Tehran to reach the 2015 pact under which Iran agreed to curb its nuclear program in exchange for lifting the punitive measures.
Trump’s tough stance could force Ayatollah Khamenei to approve talks “whether direct or indirect” with the United States, two Iranian officials have told Reuters.
In September, Pezeshkian said Tehran was ready to end its nuclear standoff with the West, which accuses it of seeking capacity to develop nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.