Nearly three decades of archaeological finds in Gaza were hurriedly evacuated Thursday from a Gaza City building threatened by an Israeli strike, an official in charge of the antiquities told AFP.<\/p>\n
“This was a high-risk operation, carried out in an extremely dangerous context for everyone involved — a real last-minute rescue,” said Olivier Poquillon, director of the French Biblical and Archaeological School of Jerusalem (EBAF), whose storehouse housed the relics.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday morning, Israeli authorities ordered EBAF — one of the oldest academic institutions in the region — to evacuate its archaeological storehouse located on the ground floor of a residential tower in Gaza City that was due to be targeted.<\/p>\n
The Israeli army did not confirm the warning when asked by AFP, but several sources said France, UNESCO and the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem played a key role in securing a brief reprieve that allowed most of the artefacts to be removed.<\/p>\n
“With almost no international actors left on the ground, no infrastructure, nothing functioning, we had to improvise transport, labour and logistics,” said Poquillon.<\/p>\n
The evacuation, he added, was carried out in strict secrecy, with “the overriding concern, as a religious organisation, of not endangering human lives”, as Israeli military pressed operations in the territory’s largest urban hub.<\/p>\n
The depot contained around 180 cubic metres of finds from Gaza’s five main archaeological sites, including the fourth-century Saint Hilarion Monastery, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.<\/p>\n
All of these sites have been damaged, EBAF said, expressing concern for “unique” mosaics left exposed despite their fragility.<\/p>\n
– ‘Only trace’ –<\/p>\n
Poquillon said Gaza has “an extremely ancient heritage, very precious for the region, showing the succession and coexistence of peoples, cultures and religions”.<\/p>\n
Of Gaza’s two museums, one has been destroyed and the other heavily damaged since the war erupted nearly two years ago.<\/p>\n
Researchers told AFP that aside from scattered ruins highly vulnerable to bombardment, the EBAF storehouse was the only significant repository of artefacts left in the Palestinian territory.<\/p>\n
The rediscovery of Gaza’s past began in the wake of the 1993 Oslo accords.<\/p>\n
Two years later, the newly created Gaza antiquities service opened its first archaeological dig in cooperation with EBAF, unearthing remnants of the ancient Greek port of Anthedon and a Roman necropolis.<\/p>\n
Excavations stalled after Hamas seized power in 2007 and Israel imposed a blockade, resuming years later with support from the British Council and French NGO Premiere Urgence Internationale (PUI).<\/p>\n
Now, with Israel contemplating a full takeover of Gaza and ceasefire talks stalled, archaeologists say prospects for renewed excavations are remote.<\/p>\n
UNESCO, which has already identified damage to 94 heritage sites in Gaza using satellite images, including the 13th-century Pasha’s Palace, has not yet been able to take a full inventory.<\/p>\n
“We saved a large part, but in a rescue you always lose things, and you always face painful choices,” said Rene Elter, an archaeologist affiliated with EBAF and scientific coordinator for PUI.<\/p>\n
The depot, he said, was especially valuable because collections had been classified systematically.<\/p>\n
“Many items have been broken or lost, but they had been photographed or drawn, so the scientific information is preserved,” Elter explained.<\/p>\n
“Perhaps that will be the only trace that remains of Gaza’s archaeology — in books, publications, libraries.”<\/p>\n
crb\/jd\/jsa<\/p>\n
\u00a9 Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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