NUSEIRAT, Gaza Strip — In November, Syrian refugee Anas Amir Mohammed Agha Qatarji opened a restaurant in the market of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. He named it Jar al-Qalaa II, in memory of Jar al-Qalaa, the restaurant he ran in Aleppo’s Old City before it was destroyed during the Syrian conflict.

At the end of 2012, Jar al-Qalaa restaurant closed its doors due to a lack of customers; the restaurant was completely destroyed following the bombing by the Syrian opposition of the nearby Carlton Hotel in May 2014.

In Aleppo, Qatarji was the CEO of Qatarji Trading & Contracting, which specialized in architectural and interior designs for large buildings, particularly historical designs. In 2005, the company bought the restaurant from a number of partners who owned it, and in 2009, guest rooms were added to the upper floors. Qatarji told Al-Monitor about all the investors who had owned the restaurant before his family finally bought the building, which is 1,200 years old.

He described the old restaurant, saying it had three sections that could seat nearly 600 customers. The ground floor entrance led to the main hall that accommodated 60 tables; it had an old water well in the middle and was decorated with multicolored lights and ancient stones and clay pots. The hall that was underground, called the cave, was decorated with ancient Arab carpets on which customers sat; they ate with copper utensils that were more than 500 years old. The third section was divided into 10 rooms, for up to 20 people each, and was reserved usually for families. It included a stage for musicians who entertained the customers every night.