In the heart of Gaza city, centuries of history once whispered through stone walls at Al Basha Palace, for generations a living testament to Palestine’s cultural identity. Today, the landmark museum lies in ruins, a casualty of Israel’s war on Gaza − its treasures allegedly plundered, its history buried beneath rubble.
Gaza authorities accuse Israel of looting more than 17,000 artefacts from the museum before bombing it to oblivion as part of a systematic campaign to erase Gaza's heritage.
Israel has not commented on the matter and The National was unable to confirm the allegations through independent sources.
Before the war, it was one of the most important archaeological and architectural landmarks in Palestine, embodying the grandeur of older Islamic civilisations. Though the exact date of construction is unclear, archaeological evidence and its design trace the origins to the Mamluk period − which spanned the mid-13th century to the mid-16th century − when Gaza flourished as a centre of trade and scholarship.
By the early 2000s, after three major restoration projects funded by the UN, Al Basha had been transformed into a state museum, welcoming hundreds of visitors daily in Gaza city's Al Daraj neighbourhood.
The Israeli military bombed the palace in December 2023, the third month of the war, as its troops fought militants inside Gaza city and surrounding areas.
“The Israeli occupation destroyed all archaeological sites and heritage centres in Gaza in an attempt to erase Palestinian history and identity,” Ismail Al Thawabta, director of Gaza's government media office, told The National.
“Al Basha Palace Museum housed thousands of artefacts telling the stories of the civilisations that ruled Gaza throughout history.”
According to Gaza’s cultural authorities, more than 316 heritage sites and historical buildings were completely or partially destroyed in the war, many of them dating back to the Mamluk and Ottoman eras, while others went as far back as the Byzantine period. The Ottoman era began in 1299 and lasted more than 600 years, while the Byzantine period dates from the fifth century AD until the fall of Constantinople in 1453.
But the destruction was not the end of the story. As excavation teams began digging through the ruins of Al Basha following its bombing, they found evidence of something more sinister.
“When we started excavation work to assess the damage, we were shocked to find that more than 17,000 archaeological artefacts were missing,” said Hammouda Al Dahdar, supervisor on an Al Basha restoration project. “It was clear that the Israeli army had looted them during the invasion.”
Israel has not specifically commented on Al Basha but says it does not intentionally target civilian sites. It accuses Hamas militants of using civilian infrastructure as cover.
A report issued in June by an independent UN commission said its investigators had been “unable to determine” from available evidence whether artefacts had been stolen from Al Basha. But it noted there had been “allegations of possible looting by members of Israeli security forces”.
The commission also said Israel's attacks on prominent cultural sites in Gaza amounted to war crimes through the “extensive destruction of property which was not justified by military necessity”.
Al Basha once held more than 20,000 meticulously catalogued artefacts, from prehistoric relics and Roman pottery to Byzantine mosaics and Mamluk manuscripts. These pieces were documented and preserved by the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, yet only 20 items were recovered from the rubble after the bombing.
“The theft of these artefacts is a heinous cultural crime, one that violates international law and adds to Israel’s long list of war crimes against the Palestinian people,” said Mr Al Thawabta. “Each piece represented a fragment of our civilisation, and all of them are gone.”
Since the palace's destruction, teams of archaeologists, government workers and volunteers have conducted weeks of careful excavation work among the remains, searching for any trace of the artefacts. But their search has turned up little.
“We’ve found almost nothing,” Mr Al Dahdar said. “It’s as if the palace was emptied before it was bombed. The artefacts that once filled its halls, thousands of years of history, have vanished.”
Mr Al Thawabta called the disappearance of these items an “attack on the memory of all humanity”.
“These artefacts are not just Palestinian heritage, they are human heritage,” he told The National.
The official said the erasure of Gaza’s cultural landmarks is part of a broader campaign by Israel to rewrite history through destruction, to “erase the traces of a people, their roots, and their contribution to the world”.
Al Basha consisted of two elegant buildings separated by a vast garden, with a southern entrance adorned in intricate stonework. Over the centuries, it was known by many names: Dar Al Sa‘ada in the Mamluk era, or the House of Happiness, and later Qasr Al Ridwan under Ottoman rule, before becoming Napoleon’s Fort after French forces occupied it during Napoleon’s 1799 campaign in Gaza.
In the Ottoman era, it served as the governor’s residence, while under the British Mandate it became a police station. During the Egyptian administration of 1948 to 1967, it housed the Princess Ferial School − renamed Al Zahraa Secondary School for Girls after Egypt’s 1952 revolution.
Today, preservation staff and archaeologists work with chisels and brushes, cleaning what remains of carved stones, decorative arches and marble fragments, determined to bring Al Basha back to life.
“We’re trying to restore whatever can be saved,” said Mr Al Dahdar. “It’s not just about architecture, it’s about protecting our story, our identity, and our soul.”
The work is slow and difficult, held back by a lack of resources worsened by Israel's blockade on Gaza, as well as the sheer scale of destruction. But the effort carries deep symbolic weight for many Palestinians.
“We will rebuild Al Basha Palace, even if we have to do it stone by stone,” Mr Al Dahdar said. “Because this place is more than history, it’s the heartbeat of Gaza, and we will never let that die.”
