Gaza’s main public library was destroyed by Israeli airstrikes on Monday, during the humanitarian truce held between Israel and Palestine. Authorities in Gaza City have condemned the destruction, and revealed the library was regularly used by school children and other members of the community before the October 7 attacks by Hamas.
Municipal authorities in Gaza have criticised the Israeli army for destroying countless books and historical documents. They have appealed to the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) to “intervene and protect cultural centers and condemn the occupation’s targeting of these humanitarian facilities protected under international humanitarian law.”
Writing on the attack, acclaimed literary website Literary Hub slammed it as Israel’s attempt to “erase all evidence of Palestinian life, Palestinian humanity, from Gaza. To turn the besieged enclave—with its ancient mosques and archeological sites, its labor-of-love bookstores and meticulously-curated libraries, its pesky health care workers and journalists and sole survivors—into an empty soccer field.”
Social media users were outraged at the attack that happened during the humanitarian pause declared by Israel.
As someone whose sister was killed after trying to save books from the burning National Library in besieged Sarajevo in ‘92, I ache at such vile acts of destruction. Books have real & symbolic meaning: once gone, ppl feel lost & disconnected. #culturecidehttps://t.co/lmNBhsIxSa
— Amila Buturovic (@amila295) November 27, 2023
As in Sarajevo in 1992—when Bosnian Serb forces razed the National Library —the targeted destruction of Gaza’s primary public library is a stark reminder that genocide is also about the calculated, and often vindictive, destruction of a people’s culture."https://t.co/ReWiSuajcA
— Shailja Patel (@shailjapatel) November 28, 2023
targeted destruction of Gaza main public library: stark reminder that genocide’s not just premeditated mass extinguishing of human life; also about calculated-often vindictive-destruction of a people’s culture, language, history & shared sites of community https://t.co/ysBSZM7z9E
— Ted Swedenburg 🇸🇪 تادروس (@tsweden) November 27, 2023
