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Palestinian Museum Digitizes Over 500,000 Records as UNESCO Verifies Damage to 164 Gaza Cultural Sites
Wired reported that Israel struck two galleries, seven museums, two archives and hundreds of archaeological sites in Gaza within one week. Roughly 80 percent of national collections have been looted, destroyed or placed under Israeli control. The Palestinian Museum responded by accelerating an open-source digital repository started in 2018.
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Wired reported that within one week Israel bombed two art galleries, seven museums, two main archives in Gaza and hundreds of archaeological sites. Roughly 80 percent of Palestine’s national collections have been looted, destroyed or remain under Israeli control, according to Amer Shomali, general director of the Palestinian Museum.
As of March 24, 2026, UNESCO had verified damage to 164 cultural sites in Gaza since October 7, 2023.
A 2025 report by the Applied Research Institute-Jerusalem stated that at least 2,400 archaeological sites in the West Bank have been taken over by Israel. In June, Israeli lawmakers advanced legislation that would place ancient sites in the occupied territory under the Israeli Ministry of Heritage.
The Palestinian Museum in Birzeit, designed by New York-based Heneghan Peng architects, holds collections including photographs by Khalil Raad and murals by Vera Tamari.
The open-source platform now contains more than 500,000 digitized photographs, identification papers, diaries, maps, films and letters. Three full-time staff members handle digitization, metadata and research, supported by volunteers. The project is funded through diaspora donations and partnerships with the University of California and the Gerda Henkel Foundation.
The museum is exploring a bot capable of reading Ottoman Arabic to process historical records. Multiple copies of the archive are stored in a distributed backup system around the world. The archive has experienced cyberattacks on its website.
