Hind Berji

“We will rebuild the Rafah Museum,” vows Suhaila Shaheen, speaking with strength and determination. The 62-year-old researcher from Gaza founded the first Palestinian heritage museum in Rafah in December 2022. But on October 10, 2023, Israeli occupation forces bombed the museum, destroying it and damaging its collection of traditional Palestinian thobes (embroidered dresses) and historic artefacts, particularly those belonging to the Fellahin (Palestinian peasant farmers) and Bedouin communities.

Since October 7, 2023, Gaza has endured ongoing attacks by Israel that have claimed thousands of Palestinian lives, displaced many more, and left countless people injured and hungry. Israel's assaults have also targeted Palestinian cultural sites, revealing a deeper form of erasure often overshadowed by the immediate human toll of the conflict. This cultural erasure, however, did not begin on October 7.