Hamas Military Wing Damages Gaza Heritage Site
Hamas’ military wing sparked uproar when it bulldozed parts of a 3,000-year-old harbor to make way for a training zone, Abeer Ayyoub reports.
One of the oldest civilizations in the world — with a lot of historic commercial value — the Palestinian coastal Gaza Strip is laden with ancient gems. Yet due to its unstable situation, tourism has never been a sector on which Gaza could rely. Consequently, archaeological sites are not given proper governmental support.
With national division between the Hamas-run government in Gaza and its Fatah-run counterpart in the West Bank, coordination between the two ministries of tourism barely exists.
At the Hamas-run government in Gaza, responsibilities of both the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Tourism were recently referred to one minister, which, according to Yusif Ejla at UNESCO’s Gaza office, places agriculture as a priority at the expense of tourism.
Ejla said that the problems with Gaza’s tourism ministry are not all about lack of funds, but lack of awareness as well. He said that officials at the ministry lack professional experience.
