Joining the international efforts to rebuild the destroyed library of Iraq’s University of Mosul, the Palestinian Authority sent thousands of books to the university in August and promised more to come within a month.

The university library, which is open to the public, was set on fire by the Islamic State in June 2014. The three-story library contained thousands of books and manuscripts, some of which dated back to the Ottoman Empire, and scientific research papers prepared by students over 51 years, ever since the University, the second largest in Iraq, was founded in 1967. Some 8,000 books and 100,000 documents, including rare maps, were destroyed.

With the liberation of Mosul by the Iraqi government forces in 2017, Iraqi activists and intellectuals began to donate books to the University of Mosul and the city's central library. The Iraqi Parliament’s Culture and Information Committee launched an international campaign, in which books are still being donated today. Tens of thousands of books have been sent from all over the world, including Australia, members of the Europe Union and the United States.

Palestine’s goodwill gesture comes at a time when the country, which faces a fiscal deficit of nearly $1 billion this year, relies heavily on international aid.