Central Library of the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG) المكتبة المركزية للجامعة الإسلامية بغزة is located in the al-Rimal district. It was inaugurated in 1978 and destroyed on October 9, 2023. In this imposing building, bordered by two green groves, five floors of 900 m² each housed more than 240,000 books, periodicals, and scientific works. But nothing of the Library survived the bombings carried out and claimed on the campus two days after October 7 and its massacres. Destroyed, the Central Library also served as a shelter and refuge for people driven into the streets by the war.
Situation prior to October 7, 2023: condition of the collections, holdings, and equipment
Building of the Islamic University of Gaza
Source : Google Maps.
Entrée principale de la bibliothèque.
Source: official website of the University.
History
The library was inaugurated at the same time as the founding of the Islamic University of Gaza in 1978.
For a history of the Islamic University of Gaza, see record No. 99 prepared by Laura Orban as part of the project. History of Gaza.
Bâtiment
Building of the University.
Source : Google Maps.
The library spans five floors of approximately 900 square meters each, for a total area of 4,500 square meters. [2].
Building of the University
Source : Google Maps.
Collections / documentary holdings
The central library holds several tens of thousands of books, reference works, periodical publications, and electronic resources [3].
Testimonies
Short interview published on the website Najah News.
Current state: condition of the collections, holdings, and equipment
Before-and-after photos of the destruction of the central library.
Source: Official website of the University.
Translation of the texts in the left margin :
THECENTRALLIBRARY - The largest and most comprehensive university library among the universities in Gaza.
More than 240 000 books, journals, theses, and essential reference materials were reduced to ashes, thereby erasing decades of knowledge.
Airstrikes were also carried out against the al-Azhar University campus on other dates, without it being possible to determine whether they contributed to damaging the central library building itself.
These additional attacks took place on October 11 and November 21, 2023. [5].
Circumstances of the destruction :
Very intense Israeli airstrikes targeted the University campus [6]. The attack on the campus was claimed by the Israeli army itself, on the grounds that the university allegedly maintained close ties with Hamas and was used as a training camp for military intelligence agents and as a weapons production site. [7].
On this occasion, on October 10, 2023, the IUG issued a solemn appeal to “all institutions, organizations, and international bodies for immediate intervention and vigorous efforts to protect institutions serving the children of the Palestinian people from all these attacks, and to act immediately to ensure students’ rights and the educational process against these attacks, to guarantee students’ right to safe education, and to intervene to limit the racist occupation policies behind these arbitrary attacks on the educational process.” [8].
The attack on the campus was claimed by the Israeli army itself, on the grounds that the university allegedly maintained close ties with Hamas and was used as a training camp for military intelligence agents, as well as a site for weapons production. [9]
Description of the destructions and/or damages
Buildings: The library buildings were severely damaged. [10]
Collections / Documentary holdings : More than 240,000 books, periodicals, reference works, and scientific papers were lost in the flames. [11]. What remains of the campus now serves as a refuge for displaced populations, and several articles show that they have no choice but to use the remaining books as fuel for warmth or for cooking their food. [12].
Equipment:
Non renseigné pour l’instant.
Staff situation:
Non renseigné pour l’instant.
Written sources:
The sources are referenced in the footnotes.
Iconographic and audiovisual sources :
Israeli airstrikes targeting the university, based on documents from Reuters and the Israeli army – Wall Street Journall, October 11, 2023.
Condition of part of the university library and its collections. Interview with Muḥammad Šaḥāda, researcher at the Islamic University of Gaza, and Mūsā Abū Darābī, an engineering student at the same university.– Al-Jazeera, April 6, 2024 (An additional report published on X/Twitter also gives a voice to Malak, a refugee on the University campus).
Comparison of the condition of the library before and after the Israeli bombings – Published on the University’s Instagram account, December 2, 2024. The photograph at the bottom shows a state of destruction even more advanced than in the Al Jazeera report of November 29, 2023, or in the video published by the University on November 5, 2024, indicating that the attacks on the university in general, and the library in particular, were renewed by the Israeli army.
Ohood Nassar, « A University Transformed », We are not numbers, May 30, 2025. The testimony explicitly refers to the library, both before and after its destruction.
Main entrance of the Central Library
of the Islamic University of Gaza before its destruction
Colored pencil on paper, 18 x 2 cm, January, 2026.
Drawing by Théodora Lucile.
Théodora Lucile is an illustrator and comic book author. She lives in Paris and Brussels. She is the one who drew the logo of Reading in Gaza. You can find her on Instagram (@theodora.lucile).
This drawing is a free yet faithful interpretation of a photo of the Central Library of the Islamic University of Gaza before its destruction. It is a tribute to the memory of what this library once was: a place of archives, study, and gatherings.But it is also a call for its reconstruction.
By leaving the realm of photography, we leave the domain of strict documentation and bring memory to life in a different way.As a European, I had never seen this library with my own eyes before drawing it for Reading in Gaza. I spent several hours reproducing this photo until I knew it by heart… And afterward, once the excitement of drawing had faded, I was confronted with the image of the destruction, experiencing a strange feeling.
