Volunteers work to restore damaged Great Omari Mosque library in Gaza

Volunteers work to restore damaged Great Omari Mosque library in Gaza Submitted by Gofran Mohamad on Tue, 04/28/2026 - 14:19 In Gaza, Palestinian medical students launched an initiative to clean and restore the damaged library of the Great Omari Mosque, after discovering widespread destruction inside the site following Israeli shelling. Kareem Al-Khoudari, a student at the Islamic University of Gaza, said the effort began after he and a friend visited the mosque following Friday prayers and found thousands of rare books and manuscripts, including copies of the Qur’an, scattered, burned and covered in rubble and dust. Working with limited resources and basic tools, the students and volunteers removed rubble, cleaned surviving books and attempted to preserve what remained of the collection.