The UNESCO World Heritage Committee has decided to inscribe the 1,700-year-old Monastery of St. Hilarion in central Gaza on both the official World Heritage List and the List of World Heritage in Danger. The site, also known as Tell Umm Amer, is the fifth in Palestine to be inscribed on the World Heritage List, which includes 1,223 sites and structures in 168 countries.
The two designations imply an international commitment by the World Heritage Convention to “avoid deliberate actions that could harm this site, directly or indirectly… and to contribute to its protection,” the announcement said. The Convention currently has 195 states parties, including Israel and Palestine. The designations underscore the current precarious state of Palestinian cultural heritage under the ongoing Israeli military assault on Gaza, which has killed over 39,677 people and injured over 91,645 others since October 7.
This rising death toll is compounded by the fact that Israeli bombings in Gaza have destroyed numerous Palestinian cultural assets and antiquities – attacks condemned by international human rights groups. In December, the Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict granted the monastery The site was temporarily given increased protection following reports of damage caused by the conflict. In January, 92 days after the start of the ongoing Israeli aggression, the Arab Regional Group of the International Council on Monuments and Sites declared that more than 60% of registered cultural heritage sites in Gaza had been destroyed by Israeli bombings.
Located about 10 kilometers south of Gaza City, near Nuseirat, a municipality that is home to one of the eight refugee camps in the besieged Strip, the Monastery of St. Hilarion is one of the oldest Christian sites in Southwest Asia and North Africa, founded in the fourth century by St. Hilarion, a monk considered the founder of Palestinian monasticism – a Christian movement that included the construction of monasteries throughout Palestine during the Byzantine period (330-1453 AD).
Located in the desert, the monastery was initially inhabited by solitary hermits before developing into a religious community center. Its location on a major Christian pilgrimage route and several transcontinental trade routes made it a popular stopover and, moreover, a meeting point for various cultural, religious and economic practices. The site is home to a wealth of intricate geometric, floral and animal mosaics and features a combination of natural and architectural elements dating from the fourth to eighth centuries, including an ecclesiastical center consisting of three churches, a huge crypt and refectory, and a residential complex with adjacent thermal baths.
The Monastery of St. Hilarion was abandoned in the 7th century following an earthquake. It was rediscovered by local archaeologists in 1999 and has since been the subject of several conservation efforts and campaigns. In 2010, three groups in Gaza initiated emergency protection measures to protect it from heavy rains that threatened to destroy its mosaics and archaeological remains. In 2012, the World Monuments Fund added the monastery to its biannual list of World Heritage sites in need of protection.
