Gazans begin to restore historic fort damaged in war |
One bucket at a time, Palestinian workers cleared sand and crumbling mortar from the remains of an former medieval fortress turned museum in Gaza City, damaged by two years of fighting between Israel and Hamas.
A dozen workers in high visibility jackets worked by hand to excavate the bombarded buildings that remain of the Pasha Palace Museum -- which reputedly once housed Napoleon Bonaparte during a one-night stay in Gaza -- stacking stones to be reused in one pile, and rubble to be discarded in another.
Overhead, an Israeli surveillance drone buzzed loudly while the team toiled in silence.
"The Pasha Palace Museum is one of the most important sites destroyed during the recent war on Gaza City," Hamouda al-Dahdar, the cultural heritage expert in charge of the restoration works, told AFP, adding that more than 70 percent of the palace's buildings were destroyed.
As of October 2025, the UN's cultural heritage agency, UNESCO, had........