Gaza antiquities rescued ahead of Israeli strike

Nearly three decades of archaeological finds in Gaza were hurriedly evacuated from a Gaza City building threatened by an Israeli strike earlier today, an official in charge of the antiquities told AFP.

“This was a high-risk operation, carried out in an extremely dangerous context for everyone involved — a real last-minute rescue,” says Olivier Poquillon, director of the French Biblical and Archaeological School of Jerusalem (EBAF), whose storehouse housed the relics.

On Wednesday morning, Israeli authorities ordered EBAF — one of the oldest academic institutions in the region — to evacuate its archaeological storehouse located on the ground floor of a residential tower in Gaza City that was due to be targeted.

The Israeli army did not confirm the warning when asked by AFP, but several sources say France, UNESCO and the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem played a key role in securing a brief reprieve that allowed most of the artifacts to be removed.

“With almost no international actors left on the ground, no infrastructure, nothing functioning, we had to improvise transport, labour and logistics,” said Poquillon.

The evacuation, he added, was carried out in strict secrecy, with “the overriding concern, as a religious organization, of not endangering human lives,” as Israeli military pressed operations in the territory’s largest urban hub.

The depot contained around 180 cubic meters of finds from Gaza’s five main archaeological sites, including the fourth-century Saint Hilarion Monastery, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

All of these sites have been damaged, EBAF said, expressing concern for “unique” mosaics left exposed despite their fragility.