Young Palestinian artists from Gaza organized an impromptu exhibition on Tuesday, seeking another way to show the world what happened during the war and the fragile ceasefire.
The series of paintings, reflecting much of life in the Gaza Strip, was displayed outdoors, at the mercy of the weather and curious onlookers. Images included a dove, a bullet impact, the silhouette of a person, in a territory where the war between Israel and Hamas has claimed over 70,000 lives.
The day was sunny in Bureij, in central Gaza. Children shouted and played while art admirers took photos and reflected on their meaning.
“They painted their feelings, ambitions, hopes, and visions as part of a continuous four-month exercise in my studio,” said Ghanem Al-Din, who organized the exhibition of dozens of paintings.
Obay Al-Qarshali, 21, was one of the artists. He recounted fleeing his home in Gaza City in late 2023 after the start of the war, triggered by the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7. He only took what he could in haste, leaving behind over 30 of his paintings.
They are now lost under bombs and rubble, he mentioned.
His displayed canvas depicted broken glass, cars piled with mattresses and other personal effects, as well as the rubble of buildings. All too familiar to him and the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have been displaced, often more than once.
Obay Al-Qarshali explained he changed location at least seven times during the war.
“Because of all these displacements and the suffering endured in managing and carrying our belongings, tents, through the crowd, and many other things, I wanted to express something that deeply troubled me: the fact that we left our homes and places of safety, forced to flee, scatter, and change location. This artwork says a lot,” he declared.
The timeline for the next steps in the Gaza ceasefire remains uncertain. The Hamas disarmament poses a major challenge before the transition to new governance, stabilization, and territory reconstruction can truly begin.
Reconstruction is estimated to cost over $70 billion and take a decade, according to a report released last week by the United Nations and the European Union.
The report indicates that Gaza’s economy contracted by 84%. Over 371,000 homes have been destroyed. More than half of Gaza’s hospitals are “out of service”. Nearly all schools are destroyed or damaged in this territory of over 2 million people.
While large-scale combat has eased since the ceasefire came into effect in October, Israeli forces have continued almost daily strikes and shooting around army-controlled areas, killing over 800 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. This ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, keeps detailed records of victims, generally considered reliable by UN agencies and independent experts. It does not provide a breakdown between civilians and combatants.
An Israeli airstrike hit a car in Gaza on Tuesday, killing four men, according to Shifa Hospital.
The strike occurred far from the “yellow line” separating Israeli-controlled areas from the rest of the Gaza Strip. The Israeli army stated it targeted a “terrorist” at this location, without providing further details.
The bodies were wrapped in white fabric and laid on the ground outside for the crowd to pay their respects.
The Associated Press
