Gaza Envelope "Death Shelters" to Be Declared National Heritage Sites

Three years after the October 7th massacre, the "death shelters" in the Gaza Envelope, which became sites of slaughter, combat, and heroism, will receive special protection. Minister of Heritage Amichai Eliyahu announced on Wednesday that these shelters will be declared "antiquities" and national heritage sites, granting them legal protection. This move, advanced following appeals from bereaved families and former hostages, aims to prevent the removal, painting, or covering up of the evidence remaining at these locations.

The decision was made after work by the Ministry of Heritage and in response to requests from dozens of bereaved families and former hostages who sought to prevent the erasure of the evidence left in the field. The initiative is intended to prevent, among other things, the dismantling of the shelters, repainting, or obscuring the signs of the events that occurred on them.

Among the sites included in the declaration is the shelter where Aner Shapira, who was killed, fought. Shapira had hidden in the shelter with young people who fled the Nova music festival and repelled grenades thrown into it by Hamas terrorists until he was killed. The Ministry of Heritage seeks to transform these shelters from remnants in the field into part of the national memory of the October 7th massacre, preserving not only the structures themselves but also the marks of that morning and the stories of the victims and heroism that took place within them.