Tetouan – Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) issued an evacuation order in Gaza City for the second time this week, threatening unabated strikes as a part of their ongoing genocide on Palestinians.
An IOF spokesperson outlined a block of buildings targeted for purported precision strikes. Among them are residential buildings and a ground-level storehouse for some of Gaza’s most precious and renowned religious artifacts and archeological sites.
The building is a depot for the Biblical and Archeological Research Institute (EBAF) and holds one of the world’s largest archeological collections in Gaza.
With limited assistance from the French government and UNESCO, Palestinian archeologists are scrambling to rescue and transfer items but the general lack of infrastructure — truck storages and damaged roads — hindered efforts.
Archeologists have relocated the artifacts to a church in Gaza City, which they desperately hope the IOF will not target.
The Palestinian artifacts included ancient pottery, mosaics, and metal tools excavated from five sites in Gaza. The space is also home to entire archaeological sites, including a fourth-century monastery, and one of the archaeological sites is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
UNESCO has confirmed that nearly 94 archeological sites have been destroyed in Gaza in the midst of Israel’s ongoing genocide and intentions of complete erasure of Palestinian culture.
According to The Guardian, the EBAF depository was one of the last significant storehouses for artifacts left in Palestine.
An EBAF archeologist told the news outlet that “we saved a large part, but in a rescue you always lose things, and you always face painful choices.”
Gaza has an “extremely ancient heritage, very precious for the region, showing the succession and coexistence of peoples, culture, and religions,” said the EBAF spokesperson.
