Gazans salvage ancient books in mosque library damaged by war

Displaced Palestinians gather for their fast-breaking Iftar meal amid the rubble of destroyed buildings at the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan. Photo / Omar Al-Qattaa, AFP

Inside the dusty shell of one of the oldest libraries in the Palestinian territories, a group of Gazan volunteers work diligently to salvage what remains of their ancient cultural heritage.

The Great Omari Mosque library sustained terrible damage during the war in Gaza, which erupted in October 2023 and devastated swathes of the Palestinian territory, including cultural and religious sites.

The mosque – in the old town of Gaza City – now stands largely ruined, with its library littered with rubble and dust.

“I was shocked and stunned when I saw the extent of the destruction in the library,” Haneen Al-Amsi told AFP, saying the scenes of devastation had spurred her to help launch the restoration initiative.

Amsi, who heads the Eyes on Heritage Volunteer Foundation, said the western part of the library was burned when the mosque was hit, causing irreversible damage.

“The library was estimated to contain about 20,000 books, but currently we are left with fewer than 3000 or 4000,” she explained.

Among the debris, volunteers hoping to restore the collection pored over charred fragments of manuscript and shards of yellowed paper.

“The library of the Great Omari Mosque is considered the third largest library in Palestine after the Al-Aqsa Mosque library and the Ahmed Pasha al-Jazzar library,” Amsi said.

“It is an important historical library that contains original manuscripts and a diverse collection of books on jurisprudence, medicine, Islamic law, literature and various other subjects.”

Gaza’s history stretches back thousands of years, making the tiny territory a treasure trove of archaeological artefacts from past civilisations including Canaanites, Egyptians, Persians and Greeks.

But more than two years of war between Israel and Hamas took a heavy toll on Gaza’s heritage sites.

As of January 2026, the UN’s cultural agency Unesco, had verified damage to 150 sites since the start of the war on October 7, 2023, sparked by Hamas’ attack on Israel.

These include 14 religious sites and 115 buildings of historical or artistic interest.

‘Represent history’

Inside one of the library’s old stone rooms, one woman used a paintbrush to dust off an old tome, while other volunteers wearing facemasks and gloves crouched on the floor to leaf through piles of books.

“The condition of the rare and historical books is deplorable due to their being left for more than 700 to 800 days,” Amsi said, talking of “immense damage and gunpowder residue” on the volumes.

An independent United Nations commission said in June 2025 that Israeli attacks on schools, religious and cultural sites in Gaza amounted to war crimes.

“Israel has obliterated Gaza’s education system and destroyed more than half of all religious and cultural sites in the Gaza Strip,” the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory said in a report.

Israel rejected the commission as “an inherently biased and politicised mechanism of the Human Rights Council” and said the report was “another attempt to promote its fictitious narrative of the Gaza war”.

For Amsi, the importance of restoring the books lay in preserving crucial historic records.

“These books represent the history of the city and bear witness to historical events,” she said.

-Agence France-Presse