CAIRO (Reuters) – Hamas accused Israel on Friday of bombing Gaza’s Al Omari Grand Mosque, causing considerable damage to the oldest mosque in the Palestinian enclave and sparking outrage among its residents.
Photographs released by Hamas media outlets, which Reuters could not independently verify, show a mosque, identified by Reuters journalists in Gaza as the al Omari Grand Mosque, with its walls and roofs collapsed and showing a huge crack at the bottom of the minaret.
Ahmed Nemer, 45, a tailor who lives on the street next to the al Omari mosque in Gaza’s Old City but took refuge in the south of the enclave to escape the bombings, said he had been left without voice after seeing the photos showing the damaged building.
“I prayed in this mosque and played around it throughout my childhood,” he said, accusing Israel of “trying to erase our memories.”
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a Reuters question about the damage to the mosque.
Mohamed Rajab, a taxi driver from Gaza City who also fled to the south of the enclave, said the mosque was the city’s most important landmark. “It’s barbarism,” he said.
The al Omari mosque is the oldest and largest in the Palestinian enclave, where Israel launched a military offensive after the surprise attack carried out on October 7 by Hamas on its territory.
According to health authorities in Gaza, more than 17,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the Israeli offensive, which has caused massive destruction in the enclave.
(Reporting Nidal al-Mughrabi, written by Angus McDowall; French version Camille Raynaud, edited by Bertrand Boucey)
©2023 Thomson Reuters, all rights reserved. Reuters content is the intellectual property of Thomson Reuters or its third party content providers. Any copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. “Reuters” and the Reuters Logo are trademarks of Thomson Reuters and its affiliated companies.