Under rubble and rain, Gaza women try to save rare books in centuries-old library
Submitted by Ahmed Dremly on Wed, 05/06/2026 - 14:27
Volunteers work to salvage rare manuscripts from Gaza’s Great Omari Mosque library, left in ruins after Israeli bombardment
Raneem Mousa is part of a group of Palestinian women volunteers working to save rare books and manuscripts at the destroyed Great Omari Mosque in Gaza City (Ahmed Dremly/MEE) Off Raneem Mousa lifts a heavy volume from a shattered shelf inside the centuries-old library of Gaza’s Great Omari Mosque.
With a small brush, she gently sweeps away layers of dust before passing the book to a colleague, who wipes it clean with a soft cloth.
Together, they carry it to what they call the “safest corner” - a small space reserved for the volumes they have managed to salvage.
It is a painstaking, improvised effort to rescue rare books and manuscripts from a historic collection devastated by Israeli bombardment during the genocide in Gaza.
“The library was filled with shrapnel, rubble, and dung from stray animals taking shelter,” Mousa, 35, told Middle East Eye.
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“Hundreds of shattered books and torn papers were scattered on the ground, covered in stones.”
A master’s graduate in Arabic language, she is among a group of Palestinian women volunteers from the Eyes on Heritage Institute in Gaza City who have launched what they describe as a “first-aid” mission to preserve what remains.
“We began by removing stones and cleaning the space,” she said.
“Without specialised conservation tools and cleaning equipment, such as alcohol, we relied on the simplest methods - dry cloths, basic brushes, and air-drying damp books.”
The Great Omari Mosque, Gaza’s largest and oldest, stands on a site that dates back millennia - from a Philistine temple, then a Roman temple, to a church, before its conversion into a mosque in the 13th century.
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Its library, the third-largest in Palestine, once held around 20,000 volumes, including 187 manuscripts, some of which were centuries old.
During the two-year genocide in Gaza, Israeli forces bombed the mosque at least three times, leaving it in ruins and its library severely damaged.
The library contained original materials, some dating back centuries (Ahmed Dremly/MEE)
Still, Mousa and her colleagues hope to salvage that heritage despite the ongoing siege, displacement and lack of resources.
“This library has an educational and historical value that underscores the Palestinian historical right to their home,” Mousa said.
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“The condition of the manuscripts was deteriorating rapidly due to months of exposure to humidity, rain and fungi, leading to the erosion of pages,” she added.
“Every time a page crumbles in my hand, I feel a pang of guilt, as if a witness to history is dying.”
Lack of resources
Working with almost nothing, Mousa and her team have been forced to improvise.
Through a WhatsApp group, they coordinate who can afford the journey to the mosque.
With most of Gaza’s population displaced, vehicles destroyed and fuel scarce, travel has become both difficult and costly.
“I’m afraid that one day I won’t even be able to afford the transport from my tent in Deir al-Balah to the library in Gaza City,” Mousa said.
She lost her home in Jabalia in northern Gaza to Israeli bombing, which she can no longer access, as the area has been designated a no-go zone by the Israeli army.
'The winter rain and wet wind are just as much an enemy as the bombs were'
- Raneem Mousa, volunteer
The lack of housing also means the team cannot store salvaged books at home. Most are living in temporary shelters, leaving them with no safe alternative.
Instead, they have set aside a small corner of the damaged library, carefully arranging the cleaned books by subject. Even there, the collection remains under constant threat.
“We often have to clean them again because the building is still in ruins and offers no real protection,” Mousa said.
“We are racing against the weather; the winter rain and wet wind are just as much an enemy as the bombs were.”
She hopes the initiative can secure funding for proper shelving, conservation materials and equipment to build a digital archive.
“People in Gaza have always taken pride in education and culture,” she said. “If we, the educated generation, do not protect these books, who will preserve them for those who come after us?”
Systemic targeting of archives
Haneen al-Amasi, 33, director of the Eyes on Heritage Institute, said the organisation - composed entirely of women - was established in 2009.
The team has since been dedicated to rescuing, restoring and digitising rare books, manuscripts and historical documents in Gaza, aiming to preserve Palestinian cultural heritage for future generations.
During a brief ceasefire in March 2025, Amasi visited the Great Omari Mosque library for the first time since the war began and said she was shocked by what she found.
“Entire archives of books, manuscripts and historical documents were burned or shattered in Israeli attacks,” she told MEE. “Many others were damaged, eaten by rodents, or taken by displaced people to be used as fuel amid severe gas shortages in Gaza.”
She said the library contained irreplaceable original materials, including works on jurisprudence, geography and social life, many of which recorded details of Palestinian territories and life before 1948.
'We are trying to ensure that when the war ends, our children have something to read other than news of death'
- Haneen al-Amasi, director of the Eyes on Heritage Institute
Amasi believes the library and other archival centres were deliberately targeted as part of an Israeli effort to erase Palestinian memory through the destruction of cultural and historical sites.
She recalled an earlier strike during the 2014 offensive, when Israeli forces bombed the building housing the institute’s offices in eastern Gaza City.
“Five women from our volunteer team were killed in that attack while sheltering there after fleeing their homes in Shujaiya, believing the building would be safe,” she said.
“Hundreds of books and manuscripts were scattered and lost.”
The attack left the team “devastated and filled with anger”, she said, but they continued their work. They later established a new office, where they housed hundreds of books and documents and managed to archive and digitise hundreds of rare manuscripts, some dating back centuries.
In September 2025, that building was also destroyed in an Israeli air strike.
“Once again, we lost our library,” Amasi said.
‘Future generations will ask what we did’
Despite this, she and her team continue their efforts to preserve what remains.
“We feel it is our duty to keep striving to preserve and revive Palestinian cultural heritage in Gaza,” she said.
Amasi has also appealed to several international organisations for support, but says most focus on immediate humanitarian needs such as food and healthcare.
“I believe cultural heritage is just as important,” she said. “Future generations in Palestine will ask what we did to preserve our history.”
The volunteers are working with almost nothing amid ongoing siege, displacement and transport difficulties (Ahmed Dremly/MEE)
Back at the Great Omari Mosque, she continues working with her team, recalling pre-war reading competitions that Gaza’s children once eagerly took part in.
“Today, children in Gaza are chasing food aid, queuing for clean water and living with trauma as a result of the war,” Amasi said.
“By saving these books, we are trying to ensure that when the war ends, our children have something to read other than news of death.”
Israel's genocide in Gaza Gaza City, occupied Palestine News Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:19
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