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Great Mosque of Gaza

14th-century mosques16th-century mosques5th-century churchesBuildings and structures completed in 1340Church buildings in the Kingdom of Jerusalem
Daraj QuarterGrand mosquesMamluk architecture in the State of PalestineMosques in Gaza CityReligious buildings and structures converted into mosques
Great Mosque of Gaza (Omari Mosque)
Great Mosque of Gaza (Omari Mosque)

The Great Mosque of Gaza (Arabic: المسجد غزة الكبير, transliteration: al-Masjid Ghazza al-Kabīr), also known as the Great Omari Mosque (Arabic: المسجد العمري الكبير, transliteration: al-Masjid al-ʿUmarī al-Kabīr), was the largest and oldest mosque in the Gaza Strip, located in Gaza's old city. Believed to stand on the site of an ancient Philistine temple, the site was used by the Byzantines to erect a church in the 5th century. After the Muslim conquest in the 7th century, it was transformed into a mosque. Described as "beautiful" by Ibn Battuta, an Arab geographer in the 10th century, the Great Mosque's minaret was toppled in an earthquake in 1033. In 1149, the Crusaders built a large church. It was mostly destroyed by the Ayyubids in 1187, and then rebuilt as a mosque by the Mamluks in the early 13th century. It was destroyed by the Mongols in 1260, then soon restored. It was destroyed by an earthquake at the end of the century. The Great Mosque was restored again by the Ottomans roughly 300 years later. Severely damaged after British bombardment during World War I, the mosque was restored in 1925 by the Supreme Muslim Council. It was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike on 7 December 2023, leaving only the minaret intact and much of the rest reduced to rubble.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Great Mosque of Gaza (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Great Mosque of Gaza
Sharia Omar Al-Mukhtar, Gaza Gaza Old City

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Latitude Longitude
N 31.504202777778 ° E 34.464466666667 °
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Address

الجامع العمري الكبير

Sharia Omar Al-Mukhtar
888 Gaza, Gaza Old City
Palestinian Territories
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Great Mosque of Gaza (Omari Mosque)
Great Mosque of Gaza (Omari Mosque)
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Al-Ahli Arab Hospital explosion

On 17 October 2023, an explosion took place in the parking lot of the courtyard of al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City during the Israel–Hamas war, resulting in a large number of fatalities and injuries among displaced Palestinians seeking shelter there. Reports of the number of fatalities vary widely. The Gaza Health Ministry reported 342 injured and 471 killed. The Anglican diocese that manages the hospital reported 200 people killed. US intelligence agencies assessed a death toll between 100 and 300. A report by Human Rights Watch also questioned the Health Ministry's casualty figures. The cause of the explosion is contested. Israel, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, and Canada said that their intelligence sources indicate the cause of the explosion was a failed rocket launch from within Gaza by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). Hamas and PIJ stated the explosion was caused by an Israeli airstrike. The consensus from various independent studies of videos, images, and eyewitness reports of the explosion, its aftermath, and the blast area suggests that an errant rocket launch from within Gaza is the most probable cause. While this is not a conclusive finding, it is currently considered the likeliest explanation based on the evidence gathered in investigations conducted by the Associated Press, CNN, The Economist, The Guardian, and The Wall Street Journal. Human Rights Watch stated that the available evidence made an Israeli airstrike "highly unlikely".

Central Archives of Gaza City

The Central Archives of Gaza City (Arabic: أرشيف غزة المركزي, arshif ghaza almarkazi) was an archive and study centre in Gaza, Palestine. Containing 150 years of archival material relating to Palestinian life and culture, the centre was destroyed in late November 2023 during the Israel–Hamas war. The Central Archives were kept within the administrative buildings of Gaza City. The archive contained materials that documented the lives of Palestinians going back 150 years, as well as material relating to urban development. Both the Palestinian Information Center and Al Jazeera reported that it had been a potential Israeli target since 7 October 2023. The New Arab reported that heavy shelling in late November led to its destruction, including, according to Middle East Eye, a bombing on 29 November. A preliminary damage report from the International Council on Monuments and Sites found that the archives had been completely destroyed. Images were released by Birzeit University and local press on social media. Khalil Sayegh drew a direct comparison with the 1982 theft of material relating to the Palestinian Liberation Organisation from the Palestinian Research Centre in Beirut.In response to the deliberate destruction the International Council on Archives put out a statement condemning "all actors in the region" drawing on The Universal Declaration on Archives. A further public statement was made by the Oral History Society, stating it would "do its best to support the recording and remembering of that history when the rebuilding of Gaza can begin". Other statements were shared by the Association of Canadian Archivists, amongst others. Efforts to record and archive remaining digitised archives involve the online repository Palestinian Nexus.