GAZA CITY: The Gazan residence of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat stands in ruins, like most other buildings in the devastated territory, but the remains of the once-lavish villa now also host several displaced families.
AFPTV footage shows the house, converted into a museum after the Palestinian leader’s death in 2004 and bearing murals in his honour, surrounded by rubble. Located in the Rimal neighbourhood in Gaza City, the house was heavily damaged by Israeli strikes during the two years of war that followed Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Ashraf Nafeth Abu Salem, a university professor who found shelter in the residence with his own and other families, said he had decided to clean up the rubble inside the house’s courtyard, which was “largely destroyed and burned”. A metal door that opens from the villa onto the street is adorned with a poster of Arafat, wearing his trademark keffiyeh and sunglasses. Behind him in the image is a smaller picture of the current president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmud Abbas.
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