Unknown Soldier's Square

Soldier's Square or Square of the Unknown Soldier (Arabic: ميدان الجندي المجهول Midan al-Jundi al-Majhool) is a city square in Gaza City, State of Palestine, situated along Omar Mukhtar Street in the Rimal district. It used to be a large public garden popular with unemployed Gazans during the day and promenading families in the evenings.^[1] During the Gaza war, Israeli forces used bulldozers to flatten the square. The square is now a stretch of brown dirt, the trees have been uprooted, and the playground has been destroyed.^[2]

The square seen from the south east in 2006

History

Soldier's Square receives its name from an unknown native Palestinian Arab soldier (feda'i) who died during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and was buried at the site. The square was built by the Egyptian Army.^[3] Prior to Israel's occupation of Gaza in 1967, the center of the site bore a statue pointing north to the rest of Palestine commemorating the soldier. It was pulled down by Israeli authorities and until the 1990s, Soldier's Square was a patch of sand with a white plinth (remnant of the statue) in the center.^[4] A public garden was later developed at the site with financial help from Norway,^[1] along with a coffeehouse serving visitors to the square.^[4] On January 19, 2023, Palestinians gathered in the square to celebrate the release of Maher Younis, a militant who was imprisoned by Israel for 40 years for being part of the then banned Fatah movement and killing an Israeli soldier.^[5] After Israeli forces bulldozed the park during the Gaza war, the park has become a refugee camp, for Palestinian people who were displaced as a result of Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip.^[6]