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Unesco adds fourth-century Gaza monastery to endangered site list

26 July 2024 10:20 BST

The United Nations world heritage organisation, Unesco, has added Saint Hilarion monastery, one of the oldest monasteries in the Middle East, located at the site of Tell Umm Amer in Gaza, to its List of World Heritage in Danger amid the ongoing war in Gaza.

Unesco said the site, which dates back to the fourth century, was added to the list at the request of Palestinian authorities, citing "imminent threats" it faced.

"It's the only recourse to protect the site from destruction in the current context," Lazare Eloundou Assomo, director of the Unesco World Heritage Centre, told AFP.

In December, Unesco's Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict granted the site "provisional enhanced protection", the highest level of immunity established by the 1954 Hague Convention.