Jerusalem (AP) – Nine hours of desperate negotiations with Israeli forces. Last minute scramble to find trucks on the destroyed Gaza Strip, fuel-lacked. Desperate packing for 6 hours, carefully stack cardboard boxes on an open flatbed truck.
With Israeli airstrikes looming, aid workers have carried out last-minute rescue missions to save thousands of valuable artifacts from Gaza warehouses before the buildings flattened.
The warehouse contained artifacts from more than 25 years of excavation surveys, including items from a 4th century Byzantine monastery designated as a World Heritage Site by the United Nations cultural organization UNESCO, as well as some of Gaza’s oldest known evidence. The Israeli military said the building houses Hamas Intelligence facilities and plans to destroy them as part of expanding military operations in Gaza city.
“It’s important not only for Palestinian and Christian heritage, but also for the world heritage protected by UNESCO,” explained Kevin Charbel, emergency field coordinator at Premireure urgence Internationale, a humanitarian organization that has worked in Gaza since 2009.
This photo was provided by Premiere urgence Internationale, an archaeological item after it moved to an undisclosed, safer location as it is still in danger from an Israeli strike that is still being destroyed by an Israeli strike in Gaza city, Gaza Strip on September 11, 2025.
Negotiate with the clock
Cogat, the Israeli defense agency responsible for Israeli humanitarian assistance, informed PUI last Wednesday morning of its demolition plans. The warning was triggered by an international NGO-controlled notification system, informing Israeli military that certain areas are sensitive sites, such as schools, hospitals, or warehouses, where humanitarian aid is available.
Based in Gaza City on a temporary humanitarian rotation, Charbel negotiated fiercely with Israeli forces for delays, ensuring workers could move the artifacts to safer locations. However, the challenge was greater than holding back the army. When Israel expanded its operations in Gaza city, other organizations were in turmoil, and no one could find a truck to transport the artifacts with such a short notice.
“Five minutes before we had to accept this, when it came to evaporation in front of us, another actor offered us the transport,” Charbel said. PUI worked with the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem to move the artifact to a safer location in Gaza city, which has not been revealed for security reasons.
The French Bible and Archaeological School in Jerusalem was the area’s respected archaeological institution that oversaw the excavation of Israel’s Dead Sea Scrolls, and was responsible for the storage of approximately 80 square meters (860 square feet) of archaeological artifacts in the Alcoh skyscrapers in the city of Gaza. PUI provided security for the site.
Dozens of ancient archaeological sites have been found in Gazatemples, monasteries, palaces, churches, mosques, mosaics, etc. Many of them were lost to the sprawls and looting of the city. UNESCO is struggling to maintain some of the remaining people. Some sites date back to six,000 years ago when Gaza was the central stop on the trade route between Egypt and the Levant, and the emergence of urban societies began to change agricultural villages.
Artifacts rescued this week include ceramic jugs, mosaics, coins, painted plasterwork, human and animal relics, and items excavated from St. Hilarion Abbey, one of the oldest known examples of the Christian monastery community in the Middle East, according to UNESCO.
Palestinians are looking for wood to sell or use for cooking in the tiled ble of a building struck by an Israeli strike in Gaza city on Sunday, September 14, 2025.
There is no normal preparation time
Shortly after sunrise on Thursday, workers rushed to pack as many delicate artifacts as possible into five flatbed trucks in the six-hour space. Carefully stored and documented artifacts in warehouses were quickly packed into cardboard boxes, with nearly two thousand years of ceramics placed on sandy ground.
Charbel noted that transporting such old artifacts usually requires intense preparation and special provisions to protect sensitive objects. The Israeli military does not allow the use of closed container trucks, putting artifacts at additional risk. Along the way some items were broken and others had to be left. Israel destroyed the building on Sunday, claiming Hamas had placed the observation post and the intelligence collection infrastructure inside it.
Last week, Israel has Several skyscrapers have been destroyed Gaza city is part of a dramatic warning to civilians to evacuate ahead of ground attacks It started on a Tuesday morning.
As Israel’s ground operations expand, artifacts are retained elsewhere in Gaza City. But they are outside, exposed to the elements and remain in serious danger as the strike intensifies.
UNESCO said Israel has damaged at least 110 cultural sites throughout the Gaza Strip since the start of the war in October 2023, including 13 religious sites, 77 buildings of historical or artistic interests, one museum and seven archaeological sites.
During the archaeological rescue, Charbel said he and other aid workers also addressed deeper questions. It made sense to command so many resources, including the fuel and trucks we desperately needed. When the humanitarian situation is so tragic, do you risk the lives of multiple people who worked under the constant threat of bombing, due to inanimate objects? Charbel said he is worried about spending so much time discussing archaeological artifacts when he needs to negotiate with Cogat about life-saving water, food and medicines.
“But we accepted to do this because it’s so valuable. This is very important to the history of the world and the history of Palestinians,” Charbel said. “Destroying an early example of Palestinian Christian history will erase it forever.”
