‘Not A Single Mosque Remains Standing’

CrossFireArabia
Culture
April 28, 2025

Not a single historic mosque in Gaza remains untouched following months of relentless Israeli bombardment, according to British archaeologist Claudine Dauphin.

“Every historic mosque in Gaza has been either partially or completely destroyed,” said Dauphin, who is affiliated with several archaeological missions in the region.

Among the most significant losses are the Omari Mosque and the KatibWilaya Mosque, both located in the Zaytun quarter of Gaza’s Old City. The KatibWilaya Mosque was originally constructed with funding from Ahmad Bey, the province’s chief secretary (katibwilaya) in 1586 during the Ottoman period.

Its minaret once stood beside the bell tower of the Church of St. Procopius, symbolizing centuries of Muslim-Christian coexistence in Gaza—a connection also evident in the mosaic floors of the nearby Jabaliya Church.

“In the Shuja’iyya quarter, the Mamluk-era Zafardamri Mosque, built in 1360, was deliberately leveled in an airstrike,” Dauphin added. “The Mahkama Mosque, also Mamluk in origin, was similarly destroyed during the 2014 assault and again in the current offensive.”

The destruction extended beyond Mamluk and Ottoman heritage. The Othman Bin Qashqar Mosque was struck during an air raid in December 2023, and the Sayyid Hashim Mosque, built in Ottoman style and covering 2,400 square meters, was razed in the Daraj quarter.

Shrines, too, have been systematically targeted. The shrine of the Prophet Yusuf near Jabaliya, destroyed in 2014, was followed by widespread losses since October 2023.

Among the shrines destroyed are the Al Husseini, Abu Al Azim, Ali Abu Al Kass, and Ali ibn Marwan shrines in Gaza City, as well as the Sheikh ‘Ali Al Mintar and Shaykh Radwan shrines on Tel Al-Mintar. Numerous other maqamat (shrines) in Al Shaykh ‘Ajlun were also obliterated.

Of special cultural and interfaith significance was the shrine of Al Khidr in Rafah, which held particular meaning for Christians who believed it housed the tomb of St. Hilarion, founder of Palestinian monasticism.

Modern mosques, built after the Ottoman period, were not spared. According to a January 2024 report by the Palestinian Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs, at least 1,000 of the 1,200 modern mosques in the Gaza Strip have been partially or entirely destroyed.

“Among the losses in Gaza City are the Ali Ibn Marwan, Shaikh Zakaria, Al Mughrabi, and Sett Ruqayya mosques,” Dauphin noted.

Cultural and educational institutions were also hit. The Al Kamiliya Madrasa, built in 1237 by Ayyubid Sultan Al Kamil and featuring a central courtyard and two floors, was the last historic madrasa still standing in Gaza before it was destroyed. It had served both as a Quranic school and a shelter for poor students and travelers until 1930.

Cemeteries have not been spared either. At least 16 Muslim cemeteries across the Gaza Strip have been damaged or destroyed since October 2023. Among them is the Beit Hanoun Cemetery near Khan Yunis, which was reportedly excavated by Israeli forces.

The Israeli military claimed they were searching for a Hamas tunnel or hostages, but provided no evidence, and independent verification of the alleged tunnel has not been possible.

“These sacred spaces, mosques, shrines, schools, and cemeteries, are not only part of Gaza’s cultural fabric,” Dauphin said. “Their destruction represents a profound loss of historical heritage, not just for Palestinians but for humanity.”

This report was written by Saeb Al Rawashdeh for The Jordan Times

CrossFireArabia

Dr. Marwan Asmar holds a PhD from Leeds University and is a freelance writer specializing on the Middle East. He has worked as a journalist since the early 1990s in Jordan and the Gulf countries, and been widely published, including at Albawaba, Gulf News, Al Ghad, World Press Review and others.

Culture

Beirut Weeps For a Poet

CrossFireArabia
April 16, 2026

Lebanon mourns Khatoun Salma, a Lebanese national poet who was killed along with her husband in an Israeli airstrike that targeted their home in the Tallet al-Khayat neighborhood of Beirut Wednesday, 8 April.

Rasha al-Amir, publisher of Dar al-Jadeed, announced that the bodies of Khatoun and her husband were recovered from the rubble, Thursday morning.

Lebanese journalist Maha Salma also mourned her sister Khatoun on her Instagram account, writing: “My dear sister is in God’s care. May God grant me patience in the pain of her loss and the burning of my heart and soul.”

Poet and playwright Yahya Jaber wrote a tribute to Khatoun on Facebook, saying: “Yesterday, the Israeli airstrike cut down a poet with its sharp scissors, a poet of delicate Arabic.” Under the rubble, the conjunction “waw,” the plural “waw,” the feminine plural “nun,” the feminine suffix “ta,” the definite article “al-“: a massacre of language at the hands of language. Jaber attached a picture of the building where Khatoun lived to his post, saying:

“Here is the Khayat Hill building, and here on one of these balconies, we used to stay up late with Khatoun and her husband, Muhammad Karsht, in the late 198s, spinning yarns of laughter and sewing memories. We would recite poetry and remember our city, Tyre, and love Beirut, the capital.”

Lebanese poet Majida Dagher wrote on her Facebook page in mourning for Khatoun: “Under the rubble of her house in Khayat Hill, they found a poet lying among her shattered rhymes. The death of a poet in an airstrike on Beirut makes you feel that war is very, very close. The sound of bones breaking has become louder, and the smell of blood deeper.

Salma fell from the heights of poetry before she could bid farewell to ‘the last inhabitant of the moon.'” She thought Beirut was her tent, Beirut the roof of her poem, where she would hide, “embracing a woman waiting” for the dust to settle. But the dust became the tent of a new Beirut, a Beirut weeping, broken, martyred.

Salma, who studied Arabic literature at the American University of Beirut, published two collections of poetry, “I Embraced a Woman Waiting” in 2009 and “The Last Inhabitants of the Moon” in 2012, both with the Lebanese publishing house Dar Al-Jadeed. She first gained recognition in the 1970s, during her secondary school years, when she won a poetry prize. Later, at the beginning of this century, she became known in cultural circles for her relatively small but distinguished poetic output and her academic pursuits, which included studies in Sufism and Sufi mystics.

She combined profound knowledge with poetic sensitivity. She left her mark on the Lebanese cultural scene with a unique poetic voice, manifested in her literary works that carried the pain of humanity, exile, and memory. With her tragic passing, Lebanon loses a literary and human figure who wrote of the wound in a language that resembled nothing but truth.

Culture

Al Bahri: The Man Who Set Palestinian Theater

CrossFireArabia
March 14, 2026

He is a playwright and author of 12 plays, nearly 20 novels, and numerous translations. Jamil Habib Afara (al-Bahri) was known as the “Father of Theater.” He was born in 1895 in Haifa and his family name dates back to the mid-18th century, as his ancestor owned a merchant fleet that sailed the Mediterranean between Haifa, Acre, and Tripoli. This is where his family name originated.

He showed early interest in literature and writing. He and his brother, Hanna, were keen to revitalize the literary and intellectual scene in Haifa, establishing the National Library there in 1922. He first published the “Zahrat al-Jamil” (The Beautiful Flower) and later “al-Zahra” (The Flower) which was initially a weekly publication that later became a bi-weekly and continued publication for about nine months after his death in 1931. His last piece was

a journalistic investigation into the execution of the three martyrs: Muhammad Jamjoum, Fuad Hijazi, and Ata al-Zeer, in the city of Acre in 1930. He dedicated his time and his newspaper that day to the souls of these martyrs, leading with: “The terrible hour in Haifa and all of Palestine: Let us commemorate those who gave their lives for the homeland.” A large funeral was held for him, and poems and eulogies were recited and published in the Palestinian press, such as the “Al-Karmel” and “Falastin,” newspapers.

The Department of Culture of the Palestine Liberation Organization posthumously awarded him the Jerusalem Medal for Culture and Arts in 1990, and the Palestinian Ministry of Culture reprinted his first book, “The History of Haifa,” in 2022.

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‘Not A Single Mosque Remains Standing’

CrossFireArabia

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