Great Mosque of Gaza
The Great Mosque of Gaza, also known as the Great Omari Mosque, was the largest and oldest mosque in the Gaza Strip, Palestine, located in Gaza City.
| Great Mosque of Gaza Great Omari Mosque | |
|---|---|
Great Mosque of Gaza in 2022 | |
| Religion | |
| Affiliation | Islam |
| District | Gaza Governorate |
| Province | Gaza Strip |
| Region | Levant |
| Location | |
| Location | Omar Mukhtar Street, al-Daraj, Gaza Strip |
| Country | State of Palestine |
Location within Gaza | |
| Geographic coordinates | 31°30′15.13″N 34°27′52.08″E |
| Architecture | |
| Type | Mosque |
| Style | Mamluk, Italian Gothic |
| Completed | 7th century (original) 1340 (rebuilt) c.1650 (restored) |
| Demolished | By Israel on December 7, 2023 (Israel-Hamas war) |
| Specifications | |
| Minaret(s) | 1 |
| Materials | Sandstone (exterior structure), marble and plaster tiles (entrance and interior structure), olive wood |
| Website | |
| Official website | |
Believed to stand on the site of an ancient Philistine temple, the site was used by the Byzantines to erect a church in the 5th century. After the Muslim conquest in the 7th century, it was transformed into a mosque. Described as "beautiful" by Ibn Battuta, an Arab geographer in the 10th century, the Great Mosque's minaret was toppled in an earthquake in 1033. In 1149, the Crusaders built a large church. It was mostly destroyed by the Ayyubids in 1187, and then rebuilt as a mosque by the Mamluks in the early 13th century.
It was destroyed by the Mongols in 1260, then soon restored. It was destroyed by an earthquake at the end of the century. The Great Mosque was restored again by the Ottomans roughly 300 years later. Severely damaged after British bombardment during World War I, the mosque was restored in 1925 by the Supreme Muslim Council. It was destroyed again by an Israeli airstrike on 7 December 2023, leaving most of the structure collapsed and the minaret partially destroyed.