AMMAN – More than 17,000 archaeological artefacts have disappeared from museums and heritage sites in the Gaza Strip, according to Gaza’s cultural authorities and international human rights organisations, raising serious concerns about looting and the unlawful removal of cultural property during Israel’s war on Gaza. 

 

The most prominent case involves Al Basha Palace Museum in Gaza City, which was bombed by the Israeli military in December 2023. The museum had housed more than 17,000 catalogued artefacts dating from prehistoric periods to the Roman, Byzantine, Mamluk, and Ottoman eras.

 

In a statement to the press, Hammouda Al-Dahdaar, supervisor of the palace’s restoration, said that excavation teams searching through the ruins recovered only 20 artefacts.

 

“When we started excavation work to assess the damage, we were shocked to find that more than 17,000 archaeological artefacts were missing,” Al-Dahdaar said. “It was as if the palace was emptied before it was bombed.”

 

Gaza’s cultural authorities have accused Israeli forces of seizing the artefacts during their ground operations in Gaza City. Israel has not commented on the specific allegations relating to Al Basha Palace.

 

An independent UN commission said in a report published in June that its investigators had been “unable to determine” from available evidence whether artefacts had been stolen from the palace. However, the commission noted there had been “allegations of possible looting by members of Israeli security forces.”

 

The disappearance of artefacts from Al Basha Palace is not the only case under scrutiny. In a statement released earlier this year, Al-Israa University said Israeli army forces stole more than 3,000 rare artefacts from its National Museum before demolishing the university campus in January 2024. The museum, regarded as the first of its kind in the occupied Palestinian territory, had contained archaeological objects documenting Gaza’s long history.

 

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor also reported that Israeli forces removed archaeological artefacts from Tel Umm Amer, also known as the Monastery of Saint Hilarion, one of the oldest monasteries in Palestine. According to the Geneva-based organisation, all artefacts excavated from the site were taken by the Israeli army in early November 2023.

 

Further concerns were raised after Eli Escusido, Director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, posted a video on Instagram showing Israeli soldiers at a site in Gaza containing hundreds of Palestinian artefacts. The video was shared without any explanation of what happened to the artefacts.

 

Thousands of historical documents were also destroyed when Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza Municipality’s Central Archives building, eliminating records that documented Gaza City’s architecture and urban development over more than a century.

 

According to Euro-Med Monitor, the seizure of antiquities constitutes a war crime under international law. Article 4 of the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict prohibits the seizure of cultural property during armed conflict. The 1970 UNESCO Convention bans the illicit trafficking of cultural property, while the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court classifies the taking and destruction of cultural property as war crimes.

 

Israel has not specifically addressed allegations of antiquities theft, and UNESCO has not yet announced an investigation into the fate of the missing artefacts. Euro-Med Monitor has called on the organisation to send an investigation committee to Gaza to examine damaged heritage sites and determine the fate of thousands of artefacts reported missing.