With a paintbrush, a young woman wearing surgical gloves carefully removes dust and impurities from a stone mosaic piece inside a tent in southern Gaza, as part of efforts by volunteers to preserve cultural heritage affected by the Israeli war.

According to a report by AFP, more than 160 historical and cultural sites were damaged during the Israeli war on Gaza, according to the UN. Many of these archaeological sites date back thousands of years.

Visual artist Mohamed Abu Lahya, a volunteer in the heritage preservation campaign, said the war led to 'the loss of many paintings and mosaics, which were either completely or partially destroyed.'

He added: 'It is important to revive this art, remind our children and community of it, and send a message to the world that we are attached to our heritage and our Palestinian cause.'

He continued: 'We care about mosaics and cultural heritage. We started our journey by saving and preserving artworks and heritage pieces inherited from our ancestors through the historical periods that Palestine has witnessed.'

Losses were not limited to archaeological treasures; contemporary pieces also came under threat due to artillery shelling and Israeli airstrikes.

More than 90 percent of buildings in the Gaza Strip have suffered partial damage or total destruction during the war, according to the UN.

Gaza was distinguished by a rich historical heritage dating back centuries, as the Persians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, and Ottomans left their mark, from ports and churches to mosques and archaeological pieces.

Volunteers collect archaeological pieces, document them, and store them on wooden shelves in plastic containers inside a tent set up in the city of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

Inside the tent, cultural heritage guide Mohanad Abu Lahya of the Miassem for Culture and Arts Association, a non-governmental organization leading preservation efforts, points to a stone piece and says: 'This stone is called a mortar, used for grinding grains and herbs, and it is about 5,000 years old.'

Preserving the past for the future

On one table, three women work to arrange hundreds of small pieces to reassemble a contemporary mosaic, using a printed image of the original painting while removing excess stone with carpenter pliers.

Volunteers insist on working to preserve their heritage despite lacking professional equipment for artifact preservation due to strict Israeli restrictions on goods entering Gaza.

Volunteers use ordinary paintbrushes and a primitive scanner consisting of a camera mounted on a box lined with black paper.

This device allows digitizing images and old paper documents before uploading them to a computer for archival storage.

Many of these images date back to the late Ottoman era, the British Mandate, and the Egyptian administration.

Taghreed Hijazi (29), a volunteer in the archive section, told AFP while showing some documents: 'These are structural maps of Khan Younis from the British Mandate period. We have newspapers and documents from the British Mandate and the Egyptian era.' She added: 'We work to preserve them from loss and damage.'

Volunteers say a large number of archaeological pieces remain out of reach, located behind what is known as the 'yellow line' separating areas controlled by Hamas and those under Israeli army control.

Israel says it now controls over 60 percent of the Gaza Strip's area, compared to about half the strip when the ceasefire took effect last October.

But despite volunteers' awareness of the difficulty of recovering these pieces, Hijazi stressed that 'efforts continue to preserve everything still within reach.'