Rescuing one of the Archeological Sites in the Historical City of Gaza

Sayyed Hashem cemetery is one of the archeological sites in Palestine which exists since more than 800 years ago. The cemetery is a historic inheritance in Alsedra neighborhood in Gaza City.

 The cemetery used to be a cultural landmark for the Palestinians in General and for Alsedra neighborhood residents in particular, but because Palestinians are preoccupied with life difficulties and problems they stopped looking after the cemetery and it became random solid waste dump site.

Alsedra neighborhood residents could not hide their willingness to entirely remove the cemetery, especially because of its unpleasant odors which causes the spread of mosquitoes and harmful insects. As a result, the cemetery became a disgusting  place that causes diseases to the neighborhood residents.

Because Islamic Relief Palestine is concerned with environment protection, Hope and Action to Protect the Environment Initiative team in cooperation with Job Creation Programme and Gaza Municipality and Ministry of Awqaf implemented initiative to rehabilitate the cemetery environmentally ant to revive its ancient history. 

The initiative team with the local community and more than 40 volunteers and workers worked hardly for a week in removing the waste and the rubble, planting 60 trees, putting a fence, as well as some painting and drawings at the cemetery’s wall.

As the work is finished at the cemetery, remarkable improvements were noticed at the behaviors and practices of the neighborhood residents as they started to look after the cemetery by irrigating the new planted trees inside the cemetery and keeping the surrounding environment clean by stopping throwing garbage and preventing anyone who does so and continuous follow-up to the area.

Neighborhood residents expressed their extreme happiness with the radical changes they saw. They said, “we never imagined that the cemetery will be clean and green free of waste. You have made a positive change in the area and in our life.”