Soldier's Square or Square of the Unknown Soldier (Arabic: ميدان الجندي المجهولMidan 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 Israel-Hamas 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]
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. 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.[3] A public garden was later developed at the site with financial help from Norway,[1] along with a coffeehouse serving visitors to the square.[3]
