Nearly a century ago, British soldiers invaded Gaza to push out the Turks. Paul Mason pays a visit to what was to be the final resting place for some.
Almost 100 years ago the British army descended on Gaza to force out the Ottoman empire. Thousands of lives were lost, districts were desolated and mosques destroyed, including the ancient Omari Mosque.
Paul Mason, who is on the ground in Gaza, visited a cemetery for British soldiers who died in the conflict.
At the time the British said: “Turks were using the Great Mosque as an ammunition dump… the Turks paid the penalty for their sacrilegious trickery”. Sound familiar?
Today several large mosques stand in ruins: Israel says they were sheltering “weapons caches and Hamas command and training facilities”.
At the British war cemetery in Gaza, the keeper shows me fragments of a shell that landed there. It was quiet today
pic.twitter.com/XxJBexcv29
— Paul Mason (@paulmasonnews) August 4, 2014
Jewish graves sit alongside Christian and Muslim ones in #gaza‘s WWI cemetery #c4news pic.twitter.com/zxPcTky2iX
— Thom Walker (@thompwalker) August 4, 2014
#Gaza‘s WWI cemetery tender, Mohamed Aljawaja shows #c4news an unexploded #israeli shell that landed there pic.twitter.com/PTX61KaXcm
— Thom Walker (@thompwalker) August 4, 2014
Still living in the shadow of war. #Gaza WWI cemetery #c4news pic.twitter.com/KG4kv5FW3O
— Thom Walker (@thompwalker) August 4, 2014
The names of more than 40 Muslim soldiers killed as British forces advanced on #Gaza in 1917 #c4news pic.twitter.com/LpV9Fvq1hH
— Thom Walker (@thompwalker) August 4, 2014