Saving Gaza's Past

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1:05BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. Welcome to the Crossing Continents podcast from BBC Radio 4. The golden beach of Gaza City is crammed with makeshift tents. Thousands of people displaced time and again in nearly two years of war are now camping out in desperate conditions. There's mass starvation and thirst, and there's been a catastrophic loss of life. But still, that's not all people are mourning. Many also feel that their history has been erased. This area is where the antiquities were. It's stretched out from here. This was all an archaeological area. It was really something. How can I describe it to you?

1:58Beautiful things. We saw the antiquities, the old rooms. One man, Naaman Abdul Al, in his 60s, remembers the first time he saw the mud-brick walls of the ancient port of Anthodon, which dates back more than 2 ,000 years. They were dug out from under the sand dunes in the 1990s. And for locals, even then, living through tough times, it was a symbol of Gaza's glorious past. Now, Naaman feels the indignity of having to live here.

2:32Today, there are no heritage sites left. Our life is no longer dignified, and we are terribly sad. Everyone has suffered. No same person would choose to live on top of their own historic sites. I ended up living on the ruins, finding sewage on them and seeing our heritage bombed.

2:57Then in the cloudless blue sky, propeller planes pass overhead, but not drones or bombers this time. Black parachutes begin floating down, carrying parcels of food. Boys shriek in surprise and dash after the airdrop. Amid the suffering of this war, talk of cultural heritage might seem trivial, but for many Palestinians, it does matter.

3:25I'm Yolande Nell, and as a long-time Middle East correspondent, I feel privileged to have glimpsed a different Gaza to the one the world now knows, to have seen its lost landmarks and heritage. For crossing continents, this is the story of some Palestinians driven by a passion for the past, who are now trying to protect Gaza's remaining treasures.

3:58Thousands of miles away, in a modern building by the Seine in the heart of Paris, you can find a forgotten vision of Gaza. Nobody really knows the story of Gaza. Elodie Bouffard is the curator of a special exhibition showing ancient treasures and fragments of Gaza's history, which stretches back more than 5 ,000 years. For us, it was very important to have a collection that can explain how deep is the presence of human population in this area. Gaza is not only a land of desolation. When you come into the room it really hits you. You've got all these different eras represented from the Bronze Age and Iron Age through the Romans, the Byzantine period to the Muslim period.

4:53Each map drawn up on the wall and it shows Gaza with a star at the centre of these different trade routes, this crossing point for different civilizations, which, of course, that's really what this strip of land has long been. Gaza was an amazing, huge hub during the antiquity. It's the crossroad of all these civilizations. Africa, Asia and the Mediterranean area are in link in this city. Why Gaza is so famous during the antiquity and after? It's because Gaza is an oasis. So you have a lot of palm trees, you have a lot of vineyards, you have a lot of production. The Gaza Strip today extends beyond the old city of Gaza.

5:47It's a coastal enclave about 25 miles long and 4 to 5 miles wide. Before this war, when I was still able to report from there, it was mostly built up and crowded, home to more than two million Palestinians. But in antiquity, Gaza sat at a strategic location. It had its sheltered port on the Mediterranean coast and was on a trade route between Egypt and Syria and Mesopotamia. Alexander the Great besieged Gaza. Two thousand years later, Napoleon stayed there. It's seen different civilisations. Canaanites, Egyptians, Philistines, Assyrians, Greeks, Jewish Hasmonians, the Romans, Christian Byzantines, Muslim Mamluks and Ottomans.

6:33All left their marks. Some were only recently revealed. And here you have vases, statues, columns, these tiny lamps from a church, and the centrepiece, this wonderful mosaic. This huge, huge mosaic was found in 1988 at the middle of the Gaza Strip in Dakhelbala. It's very impressive because it's six meters on three meters. It's a mosaic of a church. It was inaugurated around the 6th century. I mean, just to describe it, it's got this fantastic kind of wave pattern around the edge. It's got the dedication at the top in ancient Greek. And it's got these different pictures of animals. You've got a giraffe, some kind of bird.

7:25Elephant. Oh, an elephant up there. Yeah, an elephant. A dog and some sort of lion maybe. And a sheep. And yes, what is very interesting is that all this iconography, it's linked with the Christianity from Egypt and Ethiopia. So that's why we can have the giraffe and the elephant, you know. but at the same time have some animals in link with the Palestinian territory and you have the sheep and the dog and you have all this combination. Many of the artefacts on display were originally sent to Geneva some two decades ago for an exhibition organised by the internationally backed Palestinian Authority.

8:09But they didn't go home. Their return was blocked after Hamas, seen by many countries as a terrorist group, took over Gaza in 2007. Israel and Egypt tightened their seal on its borders, saying they needed to stop weapons and money reaching Hamas. Until recently, the historic items remained in storage. By a twist of fate, they at least have been saved. With what's happened, this archaeological treasure, they have a new emotional impact. One of the most exquisite pieces in the exhibition is a marble statue of the Greek goddess Aphrodite, just 30 centimetres high. It's more than 1 ,500 years old.

8:59You know, the thing that's amazing, all the features, all of the creases of the material, her belly button. And you can see her face, so it's so emotional, you know, and you have the little hand, you know, of a child. Just here. OK, so it's broken, but you have the little hand just holding on to his skirt. A fisherman discovered it, you know, and he discovered this amazing little statue and he takes a decision to save it.

9:37The statue also represents the personal attempts to save Gaza's past. It's one of many accidental finds by Palestinian workers, who knew there was only one collector to go to.

9:58Talking to me from a cafe in the Egyptian capital Cairo, Jaudat Khudri is 65. White-haired, he's a larger-than-life figure. His family's lived in Gaza for 200 years, and he made his money as a property developer. He was one of the Strip's wealthiest men. Early in the war, his family fled the bombing. He's now broken-hearted, but his passion remains Gaza's past. He spent decades collecting objects uncovered from building sites or pieces caught in the nets of fishermen, including the statue of Aphrodite. When I start collecting, I know all operators of shovels who excavate. So I convinced them, if you found a piece of marble or pottery, don't destroy it.

10:50Keep it in good condition and give it to me and I will give you allowance. They thought that I am a little bit crazy looking for pottery and forest storage. But day by day we convinced that it's our history. Back in 2006, Jaudat proudly gave part of his collection to the Palestinian Authority for the exhibition in Switzerland. It was meant to raise funds for a new museum back in Gaza. Nowadays he's relieved that the artefacts got stuck overseas. And he's pleased too that the outside world gets to see physical proof of Gaza's treasures. with rival claims to an ancient land at the core of the modern Israel-Palestinian conflict, history matters.

12:01You can touch our history, you can touch our civilization.

12:13Zhaudad is not alone. There have been foreign archaeologists over the decades, but a younger generation of professional Palestinian archaeologists grew up committed to uncovering the deep history of this tiny territory.

12:33First of all, I was born at the Shati or beach camp in Gaza. The Shati camp overlooks the sea, and hence its name. I got interested in archaeology because I was born into this camp overlooking the sea, and we know very well that the sea is full of artifacts. Fadl al-Atl is Gaza's leading Palestinian archaeologist. He had humble beginnings in a big urban refugee camp in Gaza City. but from childhood he was fascinated by the finds that would wash up along the coast in winter storms. It all happened by coincidence. It turns out I was living next to the site of the ancient port of Antidone. It was an ancient Greek harbour and the city overlooking the sea.

13:18It shows through history Gaza was open to the world without borders. The French archaeological mission came excavating for monuments and I started working with them when I was still young. I was 14 years old when I started working with them. Fadel later got training in France and worked on archaeological digs across Gaza. A few months ago, Fadel and his family were allowed to leave the strip for Switzerland, where he now works. Fadel is 44 and has a wide smile and slicked-back hair. Despite his worries about relatives left behind in Gaza, His face lights up when he remembers the most prominent dig that he left at the St.

14:00Hilarion Monastery, one of the earliest monastic sites in the Middle East.

14:07I moved to work at the St. Hilarion site. It's an important site, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I loved it so much. It reflects Gaza's rich history and social tolerance. The site was built in the 4th century and continued to thrive until the 7th century. During the Islamic Umayyad period, Muslims lived there at St. Hilarion and there was coexistence between Muslims and Christians. It's a large complex. It's very significant. I loved working there so very much. Being an archaeologist in Hamas-run Gaza wasn't easy. At times, Hamas, an Islamist movement, celebrated finds from the pre-Islamic past.

14:50But it also built housing projects and military camps on ancient sites, including Anthodon and a 6th century synagogue. With little open space, a fast-growing population and a shattered economy, history was a low priority. Fadl tried every avenue to get support for local archaeology, and he found an ally in Jihad Abu Hassan, a French-Palestinian aid worker from Gaza, who's now moved to Jordan.

15:20But Jihad tells me he was initially a bit sceptical about the value of cultural heritage, given the daily challenges faced by Gazans even before the war. People didn't know, to be honest, that Gaza has such historical treasures in the place where they live. I understand them. All of them think about, you know, having a job, unemployment among youth was around 70%. So people had much more preoccupations, you know, of their daily lives, how to get access to food, how to get access to clean water, etc., etc. But Jahad, who works for a French humanitarian organisation, PUI, saw a chance to help young men and women gain practical skills.

16:10He set up the Interkal programme to preserve Gaza's heritage with support from the British Council. Young Gazans, mostly students, recruited by Interkal, helped with excavations, but also guided tours. Jahad feels they had a real impact. Once people started to visit archaeological sites like St. Hilarion and discovered this, they were very happy to know about the rich history of Gaza. And we received a lot of applications and requests to do voluntary work. I still remember a young man who said to me, this is the first time that I feel I am useful. This is the first time that I feel dignified because I do something.

17:35I'm Yolande Nell, and this is the story of the people trying to save Gaza's past.

17:46On October the 7th, 2023, everything changed. That day, Hamas led a cross-border attack from Gaza on Israel, killing some 1 ,200 people. Hamas took 251 hostages, of which perhaps 20, who are still being held inside Gaza, are believed to be alive. In response, Israel launched a massive bombardment and then a ground invasion, which, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, has killed more than 63 ,000 Palestinians. and laid waste to much of Gaza. When the war started, Zhaudat, the wealthy collector, and Fadel, the dedicated archaeologist, were still in Gaza. As the bombings intensified, Zhaudat feared for his children and grandchildren and reluctantly agreed to move to Egypt.

18:42Like all Gazans, he's since lost friends and family. I don't find the words either in Arabic or English to describe this situation. Really, nothing can express my feelings about this moment. He's devastated by his departure from Gaza. He had to leave behind his collection, finds from the sand and the sea, assembled over decades. He'd put some precious items in safe boxes in a bank, but many treasures were on display in his own special museum in his guest house in Gaza, which I loved to visit. Last year, Israeli forces destroyed the bank, his house and his museum. The whole of the museum totally burned, totally.

19:32It was about 365 pieces, all of it burned. The Israel Defense Forces, or IDF, says it struck the building because a senior operative from Hamas' Shatikamp battalion was staying there. My destroyed office was full of treasures, Palestinian documents, Palestinian costume, Palestinian jewelry, Palestinian newspapers, the 1950s and 60s. And a very important piece, very unique piece. It's a bronze plate. It's Assyrian and it's written in Assyrian language. It's a gift from the king of Palestine to Pharaoh of Egypt. We found it burned. Zhaoudat's relatives tried to break the news gently. My family members, they were so afraid to show me the videos of how they destroyed the garden, how they destroyed the house.

20:38It took maybe one week, every day, they show me one picture, one picture. Then I faced the reality that what I did in my life was destroy it in two hours. From the war's start, Fadil, the archaeologist, and the Interkal team were determined to protect historic sites. It was dangerous moving around. Some areas were quickly off limits, under the control of the Israeli military.

21:15It never crossed my mind at any time that archaeological sites and museums would be destroyed one day. We worked during the war. I was moving between my work and my house to look after my family. I was trying to preserve heritage sites. I documented the destruction inflicted on these sites. I was speechless. This should not have happened to the sites or to Gaza. Fahadal shows me pictures on his laptop of the damage done to Gaza's historic buildings and archaeological sites, including the 2 ,000-year-old Roman cemetery, excavated not long before the war started. The Israeli military says it targeted a Hamas military compound being used for operational purposes.

21:58As you can see, the Roman era cemetery in Gaza was totally destroyed, bulldozed. It was very important. The first time we discovered a Roman cemetery like this, it contained 380 graves. He then shows me the Pasha's Palace. It was one of the jewels of Gaza. Built 700 years ago by the Egyptian Mamluks, it was made bigger by the Ottomans. It's where Napoleon stayed when he passed through Gaza in 1799. It had been made into a museum. It's now destroyed. You can see Qasr al-Basha Museum. It sustained a direct hit, not just bombing. They used bulldozers to bring it down. It contained thousands of archaeological pieces that are gone now.

22:49The IDF says it has no information about the targeting of the Pasha's palace. But the list goes on. In Gaza City, with a constant sound of an Israeli drone overhead, a trusted freelancer working with the BBC recently made his way for us to what's left of the old city. The distinctive octagonal minaret of the great Omri Mosque, the oldest and largest in Gaza, is now just a broken stump and just a few exterior walls remain with stones cascading into the street. The Israeli military says it hit what it called a tunnel shaft and terror tunnel. Nearby, the entrance to the historic gold market, Al-Qayseriya, took a direct hit and the restored Hamam al-Samra, a pre-Islamic bathhouse, is no more.

23:41Local residents feel all this loss.

23:48Glory to God. These days we are missing the Blessed Mosque, with all its grandeur and antiquity, its columns and its marble. The last time I visited the Omari Mosque was during the holy month of Ramadan. We prayed Tarawih prayer on top of the ruins, but now the mosque is closed. It was completely destroyed.

24:11For us, it represents a profound sense of history and heritage. This mosque was, in fact, originally a Philistine temple here in Gaza. Later, it was turned into a church. And during the Islamic conquest, it was converted into a mosque, named in honour of Omar ibn al-Khattab. Our hearts are tied to it. Some sites do remain largely intact, including the St. Hilarion Monastery. The fate of others is unclear. Fadel is still in touch with Indical workers on the ground. Supported by foreign donors, they're checking on sites, preserving what they can. They guard a storeroom housing some of the finds from archaeological sites.

24:56It was damaged by strikes nearby and raided by Israeli troops. locals then went inside to take the shelves for firewood. A video sent by a worker shows amphora and some boxes intact, but debris and broken pottery are piled on the floor.

25:18The situation in Gaza is so difficult. Today, people are just searching for something to eat and drink. But every day, I receive calls from friends, ordinary people and neighbours to express their sorrow because they are so connected with these ancient sites. I tell them once the war is over we will restore them. In the past two years top international courts have opened cases into alleged war crimes committed by Hamas and Israel which deny the charges. Wiping out the cultural heritage of a people is part of an ongoing lawsuit at the International Court of Justice, where South Africa has accused Israel of genocide in Gaza, a filing Israel said it rejected with disgust.

26:03Israel blames Hamas for the widespread destruction, including of cultural heritage sites. The Israeli Antiquities Authority and the Israeli military declined to give interviews for this documentary, but the IDF sent a statement read by my colleague. The IDF does not seek to cause excessive damage to civilian infrastructure and conducts strikes solely based on military necessity. In accordance to international law, careful consideration is given to the presence of sensitive sites. This awareness is a central component to the planning of operational activity and every effort is made to minimize harm to civilian infrastructure and non-involved civilians.