Antiquities evacuated from Gaza City storehouse ahead of Israeli strike | Gaza
An official responsible for the approximately thirty -year -old archaeological findings in Gaza explained how the works were hurried from a Gaza city building threatened by an Israeli strike.
Oliv This was a high-risk operation carried out in a highly dangerous context for everyone concerned-a real last-minute recovery, Ol
On Wednesday morning, Israel officials ordered Ebaf, one of the oldest academic institutions in the region, to evacuate the archaeological warehouse on the ground floor of a housing tower in Gaza city.
When the Israeli army was asked by AFP, he did not confirm the warning, but a few sources said that the Latin Patriarchate of France, UNESCO and Jerusalem played a key role in providing a short reprieve that allows the removal of most of the works.
“There is almost no international actor left, there is no infrastructure, nothing works, we had to improvise labor and logistics,” Poquillon said.
Since the authority suppressed the operations of the Israeli army in the largest urban center of the region, as a religious organization, as a religious organization that does not endanger human life ”, he added that it was carried out in a certain confidentiality.
The warehouse was found to be about 180 cubic meters from five main archaeological areas of Gaza, including the Fourth Century Saint Hilarion monastery listed as UNESCO World Heritage site. Ebaf said that all these sites were damaged and expressed the concern that the “unique” mosaics were revealed despite their fragility.
Poquillon said that Gaza has an extremely old heritage, which is very valuable for the region that shows the consecutive and together of peoples, cultures and religions ”.
One of the two museums of Gaza was destroyed, and the other has been damaged since the war began almost two years ago.
Researchers told AFP, as well as the vulnerable scattered remains against the bombings, as well as the only important work store in the Palestinian territory.
The rediscovery of Gaza’s past began after the 1993 Oslo agreements.
Two years later, the newly created Gaza Antique Period service opened its first archaeological excavation in cooperation with EBAF, the ruins of the ancient Greek Anthedon Port, and a Roman necropolis.
After Hamas captured power in 2007, the excavations stopped and Israel continued years later with the support of the British Council and the French NGO Premium Internationale (PUI).
Israel is now thinking about the full capture of Gaza and cease -fire talks, while archaeologists say that expectations are far from renewed excavations.
UNESCO, which damaged the 94 inheritance areas in Gaza using satellite images, including the Pasha Palace of the 13th century, has not yet received an inventory.
René Eltter, an archaeologist connected to PUI, said, ik We saved a big piece, but you always lose something in a rescue and you always encounter painful choices. ”
The warehouse said that the collections are particularly valuable because the collections are systematically classified.
Erter said, “Many items were broken or disappeared, but photographed or drawn, so scientific information was preserved,” he said. “Perhaps this will be the only trace of Gaza’s archeology – in books, publications, libraries.”
