The Gaza Envelope bomb shelters have officially been designated “antiquities” under Israel’s Antiquities Law, in an unprecedented move by the Heritage Ministry marking the third anniversary of the October 7 massacre.
Although the Antiquities Law (1978) was originally intended to preserve finds created before the year 1,700, Section 1 of the law grants the relevant minister the authority to declare locations or artifacts an "antiquity" should it have a distinct national historical value.
Made following an appeal by dozens of bereaved families and former hostages and extensive staff work carried out by the ministry, it is intended to halt any bureaucratic initiatives to "clean up the area.”
These initiatives could include removing, repainting, and plastering over the structures that came under fire, which would erase historical evidence.
Even so, the shelters’ designation does not transfer direct ownership to the state, but rather grants the structures legal protection against being physically altered without approval from the Heritage Ministry and the IAA.
On Wednesday morning, Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu approached the Gaza Envelope regional council heads and the deputy director of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) to finalize the decision.
What are the Gaza Envelope bomb shelters?
As sirens sounded across the south and Hamas began its invasion of the Gaza Envelope, dozens of Israelis took cover in the mobile, roadside bomb shelters. Among them were deceased hostages Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Aner Shapira, Eliya Cohen and Or Levy.
From within the shelter, Shapira managed to fend off seven grenades thrown by Hamas terrorists before he was killed. Goldberg-Polin, Cohen, and Levy were all taken hostage by Hamas.
Goldberg-Polin was executed in August 2024. Cohen and Levy were released in February 2025.
"The events of October 7 seared a deep wound into our flesh,” said Eliyahu, “but they also revealed fortitude, heroism, and mutual responsibility that will be remembered for generations. In the midst of the inferno, the shelters scattered across the Gaza Envelope became arenas of a struggle for survival, of blood and of immeasurable heroism.”
“Our duty to future generations is to ensure that the stories of heroism and loss are told from within the space itself, and do not disappear under bureaucratic considerations or a hasty desire to ‘clean up the area.’”
The directive has been passed to all necessary authorities in order to ensure that the shelters are preserved as testimony and remembrance sites for the events of the massacre.