Gaza (QNN)- An Israeli strike on Monday targeted the historic Abu Salim Mosque in Deir Al-Balah, central Gaza, destroying large parts of the mosque and leaving the remaining structure severely damaged. Israeli forces also destroyed a prayer hall in Gaza City.
The Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs condemned Israeli attacks on religious sites, noting that 1,244 of the 1,275 mosques across the Gaza Strip have been targeted, with 1,077 completely destroyed.
The Ministry stressed that targeting mosques and prayer halls, whether by destroying or damaging them, constitutes more than an assault on property. It described such attacks as an assault on the Palestinian people’s identity, faith and right to practice their religious rituals, as well as an attempt to erase their cultural and religious heritage and destroy institutions and landmarks integral to their lives.
Video shared by news outlets and social media users showed dark smoke rising from the site after the strike. The mosque was widely regarded as one of the oldest and most historically significant religious landmarks in the territory.
According to the residents, the loss of Abu Salim Mosque is a tremendous cultural loss, as It’s considered an important landmark and a very old heritage site.
The mosque was built in 1951 by Haj Mohammad Abu Salim, making it one of the earliest mosques established in the area. For nearly 75 years, the mosque has served as a cornerstone of the community’s social and cultural life, bringing together generations through Quran memorization circles and religious activities. It has also served as a center for social solidarity and a gathering place for residents of Deir Al-Balah during various national and community occasions.
The attack came amid a spike in Israeli attacks on the Palestinian enclave despite the so-called ceasefire that took effect in October 2025.
Israel continued its relentless bombardment of the Gaza Strip on Monday, striking Palestinian homes, tents sheltering displaced families, and a water desalination plant, killing several Palestinians including two children and wounding more than a dozen others, in fresh violations of a ceasefire that Israel has never stopped breaching.
The strikes came days after Israel's War Minister Israel Katz and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to carry out assassinations and to forcibly displace entire residential neighborhoods in Gaza over a handful of paper kites flown by Palestinian children. Israel issued those threats even after its own army admitted that the kites recovered near the boundary carried no explosives or suspicious material and posed no danger, exposing the kites as a manufactured pretext for the very escalation now unfolding.
Since the ceasefire took effect, Israel has killed at least 1,288 Palestinians and wounded 4,290 others, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, with a further 813 bodies recovered from the rubble. The overall death toll from Israel's genocide since October 2023 now stands at 73,422 killed and more than 174,000 wounded, the majority of them women and children, with countless others still buried beneath the ruins. Israel has destroyed around 90 percent of Gaza's civilian infrastructure, with the UN estimating reconstruction costs at some 70 billion dollars.
