Old City of Gaza

Katib al-Wilaya Mosque or Welayat Mosque (Arabic: جامع الولايات) was a small historic mosque located along Omar Mukhtar Street in Gaza City in the Zaytun Quarter of the Old City. The mosque was built by the Burji Mamluks in 1432, however, the structure could date further back to 1344. Additions to the western part of the mosque were commissioned in 1584 by Ahmed Bey, the Ottoman clerk of the Damascus Vilayet (Province of Damascus). Damascus Vilayet's Arabic transliteration was Wilayat Dimashq, hence the name of the mosque Katib al-Wilaya ("the clerk of the state").

On 19 October 2023, part of the Church of Saint Porphyrius, a Greek Orthodox church in Gaza City, in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, was damaged during an Israeli aistrike, killing at least 18 Palestinian civilians during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war. Over 450 Christian and Muslim Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip had been sheltering there. According to the Israeli military the explosion resulted from one of its airstrikes, which had targeted a nearby Hamas rocket and mortar launch command post.

The Church of Saint Porphyrius (Greek: Εκκλησία του Αγίου Πορφυρίου, romanized: Ekklisía tou Agíou Porfyríou, IPA: [e.kliˈsi.a tu aˈʝi.u por.fiˈri.u]; Arabic: كَنِيسَة الْقِدِّيس بُرْفِيرْيُوس, romanized: Kanīsat al-Qiddīs Burfīryūs) is a Greek Orthodox church in Gaza City, State of Palestine. It belongs to the Patriarchate of Jerusalem and is the oldest active church in the city and is said to be the third oldest church in the world. Located in the Zaytun Quarter of the Old City of Gaza, it is named after the 5th-century bishop of Gaza, Saint Porphyrius, whose tomb is situated in the northeastern corner of the church.

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.

Al-Sham'ah Mosque or Bab ad-Darum Mosque (Arabic: مسجد الشمعة) is a historic mosque located in Hayy al-Najjarin (the Carpenters' Neighborhood) of the al-Zaytun Quarter in Gaza's Old City, Palestine. Its name Sham'ah translates as "Candle," although the origin of the name is unknown. The mosque does not have a minaret. It was built on 8 March 1315 by the Mamluk Governor of Gaza, Sanjar al-Jawli. The inscription on the mosque which states its endowment by al-Jawli and the reigning Mamluk sultan at the time, al-Nasir Muhammad, originally belonged to a mosque al-Jawli built previously. That mosque was destroyed in 1799, during Napoleon's invasion of Gaza. Its stones were then used for other edifices in Gaza while its inscription was attached to the al-Sham'ah Mosque. Since its construction in the 14th-century, al-Sham'ah Mosque has gone through numerous repairs and restorations. In 1355 it was visited by Ibn Batutah who made the following note: "Gaza had a beautiful Friday mosque (Great Mosque of Gaza), but these days Friday service is conducted in the mosque built by the amir al-Jawli. It is an elegant building, strongly constructed and its pulpit is from white marble." 15th-century Islamic scholar al-Sakhawi mentions that Khatib Yusuf al-Ghazzi was the imam of the mosque in 1440–41.

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".

Al-Ahli Arab Hospital (Arabic: المستشفى الأهلي العربي, lit. 'The Arab People's Hospital') is a hospital in Gaza City. Its headquarters are located in the Zeitoun neighborhood in the south of the city, and it is managed by the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem. Founded in 1882, it is one of the oldest hospitals in the city.

Qasr al-Basha (Arabic: قصر الباشا), also known as Pasha's Palace Museum, Radwan Castle, and Napoleon's Fort, is a historical palace situated in the Old City of Gaza, now housing a museum and a girls' school. It served as a seat of power in the Mamluk and Ottoman periods and as a police station under the British Mandate.

Palestine Square (Arabic: ميدان فلسطين, romanized: Mīdān Falastīn), also known as Al-Saha or As-Saha (Arabic: الساحة, "the (community) space" or "the square"), is a city square in east-central Gaza City, State of Palestine, in between Jamal Abdel Nasser Street and Omar Mukhtar Street. It is the location of a bus station, a taxi station, a fruit market, a hospital, and dozens of small shops and vendors. Gaza's municipal headquarters is also located in the square. Palestine Square once was walled when it laid along the southern edge of the Old City, overlooking barley and vegetable farms, olive and almond groves.

Zofor Domri Mosque was a mosque in the Shuja'iyya area of the Old City of Gaza in Palestine. It was built around 1360 during the Mamluk rule of the region and expanded in 1498. The mosque has been damaged on multiple occasions by conflicts in the region, most recently as a result of the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip.

The Sayed al-Hashim Mosque (Arabic: مسجد السيد هاشم Masjid as-Sayed Hāshim; Turkish: Seyyid Haşim Camii) is one of the largest and oldest mosques in Gaza, located in the ad-Darrāj Quarter of the Old City, off of al-Wehda Street. The tomb of Hashim ibn Abd al-Manaf, Muhammad's great grandfather who died in Gaza during a trading voyage, is located under the dome of the mosque according to Muslim tradition.A mosque and hostel have been located at the present site since at least the 12th century CE. The mosque had a madrasa and was a center for religious learning in the 19th and parts of the 20th-century. The mosque was named after Hashim. The Sayed al-Hashim Mosque was frequented by visiting traders from Egypt, Arabia and Morocco.The existing mosque was built in 1850, on the orders of the Ottoman sultan Abdul Majid. Some of the older materials used in the mosque’s construction were taken from the mosques and other buildings destroyed by Napoleon Bonaparte's troops. The original Ottoman minaret was rebuilt in 1903 and the north and west aisles were also built during the same period. The mausoleum of Hashim is located in the north-western corner of the mosque.

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.