BEIRUT — Amid the bombed-out buildings and thousands of dead in Gaza City, there is another, often overlooked casualty: the embattled enclave’s shattered cultural institutions, particularly its few libraries.

Both the Gaza Municipal Library and the Rashad al-Shawa Cultural Center — which hosted a meeting between President Bill Clinton and Yasser Arafat 25 years ago — have been shelled into rubble during the nearly two months of war as Israel attempts to destroy the militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip