Heinrich Heine's ominous sentence: "those who burn books will in the end burn human beings[...]"comes to mind, said poet and translator Zeeshan Pathan in a message posted on platform X as Literary Hub reported that authorities in Gaza City have condemned what they say was the deliberate destruction of the city’s main public library by Israeli forces after finding the building in ruins while a ceasefire was being observed between Israel and Hamas.
"As was the case in Sarajevo in 1992—when Bosnian Serb forces, stationed in the hills above the city, razed the National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina to the ground—the targeted destruction of Gaza’s primary public library is a stark reminder that genocide is about more than just the premeditated mass extinguishing of human life; it’s also about the calculated, and often vindictive, destruction of a people’s culture, language, history, and shared sites of community, the Literary Hub noted.
Municipal authorities in Gaza have called for the intervention of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to “intervene and protect cultural centers and condemn the occupation’s targeting of these humanitarian facilities protected under international humanitarian law,” it added.
According to the Associated Press, almost every building in the northern Gaza city of Beit Hanoun has been left destroyed by the intensity of the latest war between Israel and Hamas.