Gaza (UNA/WAFA) – In the heart of Gaza City, the rubble of the Palestinian Planning and Labor Department library is visible to all. One of the city’s main streets has been closed after the library was directly bombed by Israel, which led to its complete destruction.
The occupation forces destroyed and burned at least 10 public libraries in the Gaza Strip, in addition to university libraries, reducing them to piles of rubble or, what remained, to shelters.
By destroying the cultural heritage in the Gaza Strip since its brutal aggression on October 2023, XNUMX, the occupation has sought to obliterate the cultural identity of the Palestinian people by denying their history and violating their sovereignty.
Rockets also struck several archive libraries, destroying and burning the most prominent ones. These included the library of the Great Omari Mosque, which contains hundreds of manuscripts and newspapers, some dating back to the fourteenth century; the Gaza Municipality Archives; and the library of the Department of Labor and Planning, the "Planning Center," affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Dr. Mohammed Al-Hafi, a researcher at the Department of Labor and Planning, said that the Israeli aggression targeted the building housing the department's headquarters on March 2, 2024. The building included a valuable library containing nearly 60 titles, including books, periodicals, academic dissertations, and political documents chronicling the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Al-Hafi added, in his interview with the Palestinian News and Information Agency (WAFA), that the library's most significant losses are the archives and documents section, which cannot be replaced because they were only available in the department's library, as well as the Israeli studies section, which contains important reports and some studies in foreign languages.
He pointed out that the PLO's Department of Labor and Planning was a meeting place for researchers and graduate students at Palestinian universities, and a venue for holding cultural seminars and lectures.
For his part, researcher Salman Al-Zari'i told a WAFA correspondent that he had lost an important source of information, especially since the destroyed libraries contained sources and references not found elsewhere.
He pointed out that there are irreplaceable materials that cannot be found anywhere else, not even on the internet, such as periodicals and major books on Palestinian history and the Palestinian revolution in the Planning Center's library.
“These are irreplaceable manuscripts and references. This is a loss for future generations,” Al-Zari’i said.
In the Bahrain Public Library building in the heart of Jabalia camp, north of the Gaza Strip, scattered are the remains of children's storybooks, books, and burned-out computer parts, which were bombed by the occupation forces during their attacks on Jabalia camp in October 2023 and November 2024.
Mohammed Hassan, one of the displaced people in what remained of the Bahrain Library, said he took refuge in the burned-out part of it after it had been cleared. "They burned the part that wasn't destroyed. We cleaned up what we could and are using it as a shelter."
“I used to organize cartoon videos for children, along with computer skills training and e-skills sessions for young people. Now I am displaced,” Hassan said.
As for what remained of the first floor, whose walls were covered in black smoke from the fire, Hassan pointed to the right and said, “This was the video projection hall.” Then he pointed to the left and said, “This is the reception... It was either destroyed or burned.”
The child, Shaaban Afana, (11 years old), said that he was a regular visitor to the library.
“I used to come to read stories and play on the computer… Now I am displaced in Al-Fakhoura School.”
The library is located within the walls of a UNRWA-run school known as Al-Fakhoura School, which has been subjected to more than one attack in which Israeli forces targeted the displaced residents, killing dozens of them.
The Diana Tamari Sabbagh Library, part of the Rashad Shawwa Cultural Center, was completely destroyed in an airstrike on the center, which also destroyed all its facilities, including a theater and a printing press.
Burnt and torn books and documents, difficult to retrieve from the rubble, numbered 20, according to Abu Hashem's study.
Some of the displaced people sneaked in, collecting papers and scraps of books to use for cooking fires after fuel was cut off due to the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip.
Dr. Magdy Salem said that the loss of Diana Tamari Sabbagh's library is a great loss, given its valuable literary, artistic, and political books.
Salem, a specialist in Palestinian prisoners' affairs, whose home in northern Gaza was destroyed and who now lives in a tent adjacent to the center, noted that he also lost his private library, which was dedicated to prisoners' affairs.
“More than 12 books, publications, master’s and doctoral theses, and documents related to prisoners were all destroyed,” Salem said.
The occupation also destroyed the public library of the Gaza Municipality in the city center, and its first floor and outdoor garden became a shelter for displaced people who had lost their homes.
As for the books, some of them were burned, others were torn apart, and some were scattered through the alleys and over the surrounding piles of rubble, while municipal employees are trying to salvage what they can.
The Qattan Center for Children was not spared from the occupation's fire. Hebrew graffiti was written on one of the walls, while bullets of various calibers and rocket shrapnel pierced the center.
Ibrahim Al-Shatli, the center's director, said that the center sustained damage from direct gunfire and from the occupation forces' firing of shells and fire belts at the city, which hit parts of the building.
He pointed out that the center's library contains more than 100 books, as well as halls for scientific activities and visual and audio arts.
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