At a meeting of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in New Delhi, it was decided to inscribe the Monastery of Saint Hilarion/Tell Umm Amer, located between Nuseirat and Dir al-Balah, in the centre of the Gaza Strip, on the World Heritage List and on the List of World Heritage in Danger. With this decision, the Committee recognized both the outstanding universal value of the site and the need to protect it from threats.
According to a UNESCO press release, the World Heritage Committee resorted to the procedure of “accelerated” inclusion of the site on these lists in connection with “threats looming over the monastery as a result of the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip.”
Under the provisions of the World Heritage Convention, the 195 States Parties to the Convention undertake not to take any deliberate steps that might directly or indirectly damage a World Heritage property and to assist in its protection.
Inscription on the List of World Heritage in Danger provides access to enhanced technical and financial international assistance to ensure the protection of the property and, if necessary, to assist in its restoration.
The Monastery of Saint Hilarion (Tell Umm Amer), one of the oldest in the Middle East, was founded by Saint Hilarion and became home to the first monastic community in the Holy Land. It occupied a strategic position at the crossroads of major trade and communication routes between Asia and Africa. Due to this favorable location, the monastery became a center of religious, cultural and economic exchange, and also a testimony to the flourishing of monastic centers in the desert during the Byzantine period.
In December 2023, at the 18th session of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, a decision was already made to grant the monastery “temporary enhanced protection” in accordance with the 1954 Hague Convention and its Second Protocol.