Israeli bombings destroyed the Al Omari Mosque in Gaza, the largest and oldest on the StripThe Gaza City Council reported this Friday in a message through its official Facebook account.

“The Gaza City Council condemns the attack by the Israeli occupation on the Al Omari Grand Mosque”, located in the old town of the city of Gaza, it has denounced, and has assured that the bombing of the Muslim temple is “part of the policy of destruction” of Israel against “historical and archaeological monuments of the city.

As he added in his statement, where you can see two photos of the temple reduced almost completely to rubble, “the Al Omari Mosque It is the largest and oldest in Old Gaza” and “one of the most outstanding Islamic and historical monuments” in the Strip.

The temple was initially built as a byzantine church 5th century and later converted into a mosque in the 7th century by Arab generals of the Caliph Omar Ibn al Khatab, in the first period of Muslim rule of the Strip. Following its destruction, the Gaza City Council has asked UNESCO “to intervene and condemn the actions of the occupation (Israel) against symbols, monuments and heritage of Gaza.”

“Monuments are not excluded”

As he has denounced, the bombings carried out by Israel in the last two months of war – which have sown a landscape of extensive material devastation – “They did not exclude the main monuments of the city“, in what he sees as “part of the attempts” to Israel “to destroy religious and national monuments that embody the symbol and identity of the Palestinian people.”

This Thursday, Israeli attacks also destroyed the ancient mosque of Otman Bin Qashqar, another of the oldest temples in the Strip, also located in the Old City of Gaza, in an attack that also caused injuries and fatalities.

According to the authorities of Gaza, controlled by the Islamist group Hamas, a large part of the buildings in the old town of the Strip have been destroyed in this conflict, including around twenty historic buildings. Likewise, nine publishing houses and libraries in the Strip and 21 cultural centers “were totally or partially destroyed.”