The ancient Greek site of Anthedon in Gaza has been bombed, the 'Palace of Napoleon' destroyed and the only private museum burned down: the war has taken a terrible toll on the Palestinian territory's rich heritage.
But in a strange twist of fate, some of the greatest historical treasures are safe in a warehouse in Switzerland.
And ironically, this is all thanks to the blockade that has made life in the Gaza Strip such a struggle for the past sixteen years.
Based on satellite images, the UN cultural agency estimates that around 41 historic sites have been damaged since Israel began storming the besieged area following the October 7 Hamas attack.
On site, Palestinian archaeologist Fadel al-Otol monitors the destruction in real time.
When he has electricity and internet access, photos flow into a WhatsApp group he has set up with about 40 young peers he has mobilized to watch over the area's vast variety of ancient sites and monuments.
As a teenager in the 1990s, Otol was hired by European archaeological missions before studying in Switzerland and at the Louvre in Paris.
"All archaeological remains in the north have been affected," he told AFP by phone from Gaza.
The human toll since the October 7 Hamas attack has been horrifying.
A total of 1,170 people were killed in the unprecedented attack on Israel, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Nearly 34,000 people have been killed in Gaza as a result of relentless Israeli retaliation, according to Israel's Health Ministry.
The damage to Gaza's history is also enormous.
- Napoleon's headquarters destroyed -
"Blakhiya (the ancient Greek city of Anthedon) was bombed directly. There is a huge hole," Otol said.
He said part of the site, near a Hamas barracks where "we had not yet started excavating", was hit.
The 13th-century Al-Basha Palace in Gaza City's Old Town "has been completely destroyed. Bombings took place and (then) it was bulldozed.
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"It contained hundreds of ancient objects and beautiful sarcophagi," Otol added, sharing recent photos of the ruins.
Napoleon is said to have settled in the ocher stone building at the disastrous end of his Egyptian campaign in 1799.
The room where the French emperor supposedly slept was full of Byzantine artifacts.
"Our best finds were on display in the Basha," Jean-Baptiste Humbert of the French Biblical and Archaeological School in Jerusalem (EBAF) told AFP.
But we know little about their fate, he said. "Did anyone remove the items before the building was blown up?"
Nerves became further frayed when Israeli Antiquities director Eli Escusido posted a video on Instagram of Israeli soldiers surrounded by vases and ancient pottery at the EBAF warehouse in Gaza City.
Much of what was unearthed during excavations in Gaza was stored in the Al-Basha Museum or in the warehouse.
The Palestinians quickly accused the army of looting. But EBAF archaeologist Rene Elter said he has seen no evidence of "state looting."
"My colleagues were able to return to the site. The soldiers opened boxes. We don't know if they took anything," he told AFP.
However, he added: "Every day when Fadel (al-Otol) calls me, I am afraid that he will tell me that one of our colleagues has died or that such and such a site has been destroyed."
Archeology is a highly political issue in Israel and the Palestinian territories, with discoveries often used to justify the claims of the two warring peoples.
While Israel has an army of archaeologists who have unearthed an impressive number of ancient treasures, Gaza remains relatively untouched by the trowel, despite a rich past dating back thousands of years.
- Old intersection -
Gaza, the only sheltered natural harbor between Sinai and Lebanon, has been a crossroads of civilizations for centuries.
It was a hinge point between Africa and Asia and a center of the frankincense trade and was coveted by the Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, Romans and Ottomans.
A key figure in unearthing this glorious past in recent decades has been Jawdat Khoudary, a construction magnate and collector from Gaza.
Gaza, with its 'coastal real estate', experienced a real estate boom in the 1990s following the Oslo peace accords and the establishment of the Palestinian Authority.
When construction workers dug out the ground, they came across many ancient objects. Khoudary collected a wealth of artifacts that he opened to foreign archaeologists.
Marc-Andre Haldimann, then curator of MAH, Geneva's art and history museum, couldn't believe his eyes when he was invited to take a look at the garden of Khoudary's country house in 2004.
"We were in front of 4,000 objects, including an avenue of Byzantine columns," he told AFP.
The idea soon took shape to organize a major exhibition at the permit holder to draw attention to Gaza's past, and then to build a museum in the area itself, so that Palestinians could take ownership of their own heritage.
In late 2006, approximately 260 objects from the Khoudary collection left Gaza for Geneva, some of which would later become part of a new hit show at the Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA) in Paris.
But geopolitics gradually changed. In June 2007, Hamas expelled the Palestinian Authority from Gaza. And Israel imposed its blockade.
As a result, the artifacts from Gaza could no longer return home and remained stuck in Geneva, while the archaeological museum project failed.
But Khoudary did not give up hope. He built a museum hotel called Al-Mathaf, museum in Arabic, on the Mediterranean coast north of Gaza City.
But then came the Israeli ground offensive after the Hamas attack on October 7, which started in northern Gaza.
- 'Anything but a black hole' -
"Al-Mathaf remained under Israeli control for months," Khoudary, who fled Gaza for Egypt, told AFP. "As soon as they left, I asked some people to go there to see what condition the place was in. I was shocked. Several items were missing and the hall had been set on fire.
His mansion was also destroyed during heavy fighting in Gaza City's Sheikh Radwan neighborhood.
"The Israelis bulldozed the garden... I don't know if any objects were buried (by the bulldozers) or if the marble columns were broken or looted. I can't find the words," he added.
The Israeli military did not comment on specific locations. But it accused Hamas of systematically using civilian structures such as cultural heritage, government buildings, schools, shelters and hospitals for military purposes.
"Israel adheres to its obligations under international law, including by providing necessary special protection," the military added in a statement.
Although part of Khoudary's collection has been lost, the treasures remain intact in Switzerland, saved by the blockade and red tape that delayed their return.
"There were 106 crates ready for use for years," says Beatrice Blandin, the current curator of the MAH museum.
Safely removed from the war raging in Gaza, "the objects are in good condition," she added. "We restored some bronze pieces that were slightly corroded and repackaged everything.
"We had to be sure the convoy would not be blocked," she told AFP. "We were waiting for that green light."
But because any return is impossible at this point, Blandin said "discussions are ongoing" about a new Gaza exhibition in Switzerland.
Khoudary is enthusiastic about the idea.
"The most important collection of objects related to Gaza's history is in Geneva. If there is a new show, the whole world will be able to know our history," he told AFP from Cairo.
"It's an irony of history," said Haldimann, who is trying to get his friend Fadel al-Otol safely out of Gaza.
"A new Gaza exhibition would once again show that Gaza... is anything but a black hole."
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