Two Palestinians from Gaza win international UNESCO award

• Engineer Haneen Al-Omassi and historian Dr. Abdel Latif Abu Hashem won the 2026 UNESCO/Jikji Memory of the World Prize, according to Al Jazeera.
• It is the first time since the prize launched in 2004 that it has gone jointly to two individuals.
• The jury's decision was unanimous, recognizing their work protecting Palestine's documentary heritage during the war.

Two Palestinians who risked their lives to rescue manuscripts, books and archival documents from bombed-out buildings in Gaza have won the 2026 UNESCO/Jikji Memory of the World Prize, the first time in the award's history it has been given jointly to two individuals.

Engineer Haneen Al-Omassi, executive director of the Eyes on Heritage Foundation, and historian Dr. Abdel Latif Abu Hashem, the former director of Gaza's Department of Manuscripts, Antiquities and Libraries, received the prize for their work protecting Palestine's documentary heritage during the war. The jury's decision was unanimous. 

The award ceremony was held in Cheongju, South Korea, as part of Jikji Day, which marks the anniversary of the world's oldest known book printed with movable metal type. The prize has been awarded since 2004. 

Recognition follows years of preparation

UNESCO's decision was based on a body of work built over several years rather than a single rescue effort. Al-Omassi and Abu Hashem helped establish Gaza's first specialized manuscript restoration laboratory and developed emergency protocols for safeguarding documents and heritage collections during armed conflict.

That groundwork became critical once the war began. Their efforts have contributed to the digitization and preservation of 228 rare manuscripts, the rescue of approximately 8,000 books, and the restoration of about 25,000 pages of manuscript material, much of it dating to the Mamluk and Ottoman periods.

Field operations conducted under fire

Al-Omassi led a team of 11 volunteers into rescue sites near the Yellow Line, an area under ‘Israeli’ military control. The team worked without heavy equipment and with limited restoration materials, retrieving documents from the rubble under the threat of continued attack.

"Standing by while threatened heritage disappeared was never an option," Al-Omassi said. 

She described recovering a single document from the rubble as a form of victory in a war she said targets not only people and places, but also the memory that preserves a city's history. 

Decades of archival work preceded the war

Abu Hashem has spent nearly 35 years collecting personal and family archives across Gaza, going door to door to persuade residents that the papers and manuscripts in their homes held significance beyond family heirlooms.

Al-Omassi's own involvement in heritage preservation traces to a manuscript Abu Hashem showed her, known as the "Captive Quran." The manuscript was taken from the library of Gaza's Great Omari Mosque by a British soldier during World War I. It later passed to a friend of the soldier, who returned it, with a letter of apology, to the Palestinian Ministry of Endowments, which returned it to Gaza.

Damage to heritage sites and ongoing risk to the archive

Al-Omassi said churches, zawiyas, cemeteries, historic mosques and heritage homes in Gaza have sustained extensive damage during the war, and that parts of the city's urban landscape have been destroyed. She said the loss extends beyond physical structures, threatening the ability of future generations to learn the history of their city.

The Eyes on Heritage Foundation's recovered archive remains at risk. It is currently housed inside the ruins of the 18-story Ghafri Tower, which was struck by ‘Israeli’ forces during the war. Al-Omassi said a renewed strike on the site could destroy material that survived the initial bombardment.

UNESCO's Memory of the World program recognizes documentary heritage of international significance. Organizers said the joint award to Al-Omassi and Abu Hashem reflects the scale and urgency of preservation work carried out under wartime conditions in Gaza.

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