Armed with paintbrushes, volunteers try to preserve rare books at Gaza City’s Omari library

Volunteers wearing surgical masks silently sifted through dust and rubble, sunlight shining through what windows still remain at the Omari mosque library in Gaza City.

The volunteers used paint brushes to clean dust from books and carefully categorized them into piles based on their condition. Only some of the bookshelves survived standing, so volunteers picked up toppled books, some with pages torn out.

“We are here just saving the library … also the Palestinian history and heritage, especially the heritage of Gaza City,” Maram Al-Sarsawi, one of the many volunteers, told CBC freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife during a visit earlier this month.

The Omari library was attacked in December 2023 during the early days of the Israel-Hamas conflict. Now, after almost three years of war, much of Gaza’s infrastructure, including libraries, schools and universities, has been damaged.

And while the ceasefire in place since January is still fragile, many Palestinians are trying to repair damage wherever they can.

The western part of the Omari library was burnt down in the 2023 attack, but Al-Sarsawi says her team has saved 3,000 books out of the approximately 20,000 books — many rare — that it once held.

Since the ceasefire took effect and civilians were allowed to return to Gaza City, volunteers with the Eyes on Heritage Foundation have been trying to save the books — one so rare it’s from the Ottoman Empire, Al-Sarsawi says.

“We have to revive this library again because it’s the only one,” she said. “This is a very historical and valuable and remarkable library in Gaza.” 

In the first few months of the war alone, over 87 libraries and archives were destroyed in the enclave, based on a report released in February 2024 by Librarians and Archivists with Palestine, a network of archivists and librarians working in solidarity with Palestine.

‘Only a fraction’ of damage properly documented, group says

But the organization says their list is far from complete. Historically, they say that 30,000 books and manuscripts were taken from Palestinian villages and towns in 1948.

“Archivists and librarians have been repeatedly displaced, injured, or killed, making it even more difficult to take stock of the damage to cultural heritage,” the report says.

“As a result, it should be assumed that this report represents only a fraction of the extent of damage and death, not a complete picture.”

Destruction has been widespread, per a report published by the UN in February, only weeks after the ceasefire took hold. In particular, the report noted that in the first five days of the war alone, roughly 6,000 bombs destroyed over 12,600 homes. 

That UN report also references an independent international inquiry in the area, which found “average daily damage to buildings far exceeded the damage during previous hostilities.” 

Haneen Al-Amsi, the 33-year-old executive director of Eyes on Heritage Foundation, says the volunteers are trying to save whatever bits of Gaza’s history still remain. 

The Omari library, in particular, is an important, historical library for Palestinian heritage and Gaza in particular, Al-Amsi said.

“We tried our best to save as much as we could, and we took the responsibility of saving these books,” she said.