‘My work is a scream for help’: Gaza’s artists document life under fire

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Charcoal drawings of life during the war in Gaza by Basel Al Maqousi.Photograph: Courtesy of Darat al FununView image in fullscreenCharcoal drawings of life during the war in Gaza by Basel Al Maqousi.Photograph: Courtesy of Darat al FununGlobal development‘My work is a scream for help’: Gaza’s artists document life under fireWork illustrating the war’s brutality but also the resilience of four Palestinian artists, is being exhibited at the Darat al Funan in JordanSupported byAbout this contentGeneva AbdulMon 21 Apr 2025 06.00 CESTLast modified on Mon 21 Apr 2025 06.01 CESTShareBasel El Maqousi says he is amazed to be alive at the end of each day. Living in Gaza, where more than 64,000 Palestinianshave been killedby Israel’s assault, and with the tally rising still, his amazement returns, he says, with each morning light.“The war began and life stopped. There is no work or art, we just try to run from one place to another, searching for salvation from the bombing and killing that pursues us. We walk quickly to search for water and food, and running has become the master of all times,” he says.“In these moments, we lose a part of our humanity, our dignity and everything that is beyond endurance.”El Maqousiis among nearly 2 million Palestinians in Gaza living under the forced displacement and Israeli bombing that has reduced much of the territory to rubble.His work is among that of four Gazan artists who feature in an exhibition entitled Under Fire at theDarat al Fununin Amman, Jordan. All are still creating and using whatever materials they can find, despite living under the daily bombardment.View image in fullscreenBefore the war, Basel Al Maqousi was an art teacher in Beit Lahia; now he says his depictions of life under bombardment are a message to the world.Photograph: Courtesy of Darat al FununWith his black charcoal pencil,El Maqousihas created haunting images of the catastrophic war. His work depicts men stripped and blindfolded, women in mournful embraces and children with missing limbs amid a sea of tents.“My art is a message I carry to the world that we, the people of Palestine, are under occupation and deserve to live with dignity and freedom like the rest of the peoples of the world,” he says.Before October 2023, El Maqousi worked as an art teacher in the northernGazacity of Beit Lahia. He has been exhibited internationally and has attended residencies in India, Algeria and the US.These notebooks and pens were my refuge, and I placed them in my small bag without worry, as if I were writing my memoirs dailySohail SalemNow, having been displaced from Khan Younis, Rafah, Deir al-Balah, Nuseirat and Az-Zawaida, El Maqousi says he maintains his humanity through the more than 100 workshops he has organised with children, mothers and people with disabilities, entitled Artistic Residence, Not Displacement.He began by gathering children near his tent and giving them the materials to create as their mothers looked on, smiling at the sight of their brief respite. One of the most difficult workshops was with mothers, he says, who cried as they drew their homes and dreams. He cried with them.View image in fullscreenPalestinian artist Basel El Maqousi during one of the workshops for children he hosts in Gaza.Photograph: Courtesy of the Artist“This is what I do during the war. I know very well that it is not much, but I also know that the children were given the opportunity for some time to forget the war, the fear, and the hunger. To forget the time, the suffering and the nightmares day and night,” he says.“I have nothing else to do and I love what I do.”The Under Fire exhibition is the latest example of Darat Al Funun’s dedicated programming in solidarity with Gaza, says its arts and culture director, Khaled al-Bashir.View image in fullscreenThe exhibition at Darat al Funun in Amman, Jordan.Photograph: Courtesy of Darat al Funun“This particular display is especially important within this context, given the circumstances under which these artists continue to create – and their remarkable determination to do so, from within Gaza and under displacement. Needless to say, it also emerges from the absolute necessity to centre Gazan voices at the moment, and the urgency of doing so,” says Bashir.skip past newsletter promotionSign up toGlobal DispatchFree newsletterGet a different world view with a roundup of the best news, features and pictures, curated by our global development teamEnter your email addressSign upPrivacy Notice:Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see ourPrivacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the GooglePrivacy PolicyandTerms of Serviceapply.after newsletter promotion‘It’s not our job to make photos that are easy to look at’: the female photographers exposing the cost of conflict in 2024Read moreAll four artists in the exhibition were students at a summer programme run by Darat Al Funun under the Syrian artist Marwan Kassab Bachi, and went on to help establish two of Gaza’s major art spaces and collectives. Sohail Salem and Raed Issa were co-founders ofthe Eltiqa Group, and El Maqosui and Majed Shala helped to create Shababeek for Contemporary Art – both of which have been destroyed in the war.On display are Salem’s pen drawings in blue, black and red ink, inside numerous Unrwa notebooks. He describes his work as “a message to the world” and “a scream for help”.View image in fullscreenSohail Salem draws in Unwra notebooks using pens.Photograph: undefined/Courtesy of Darat al Funun“It was a mission for me to release a visual store of misery I had stored in my mind. This was most brutal when I was forced to pass over the bodies of martyrs during the displacement. Overcrowding of the displaced and listening to the news on the radio at high volume, I tried to separate myself from my surroundings every morning and draw,” says Salem, who buys his tools from a street vendor in Deir al-Balah, where he lives in a garage.In January 2023, Salem was a university art teacher. He was arrested by the Israel Defense Forces at his family home in Al-Rimal, separated from his family and handcuffed and blindfolded before being interrogated. He recalls how a letter of the Hebrew alphabet was written on his forehead, leaving men around him to speculate if this meant he would be killed first. He was later released and able to find his family in Deir al-Balah, where they had fled.View image in fullscreenSome of Salem’s notebooks.He says his art is a way of releasing the visual store of memory he carries in his mind.Photograph: Courtesy of Darat al Funun“The idea of drawing seemed ridiculous. What could I draw in such circumstances? And why? My brain was damaged from the sound of intense bombing that still resonated in my head,” says Salem. Before the war he taught at Al-Aqsa University, and had his work exhibited locally and internationally.“These small notebooks and pens were my refuge, and I placed them in my small bag without worry, as if I were writing my memoirs daily.”The exhibition also includes Issa’s portraits of women and children, using the only materials he could find – he draws on medicine packaging, using karkadeh (hibiscus flower tea) and pomegranate juice alongside ink.View image in fullscreenA selection of Raed Issa’s protraits from the exhibition. Issa draws on medicine packaging using tea, juice and ink.Photograph: Courtesy of Darat al Funun“In the most recent displacement, I couldn’t bring my art supplies with me,” says the text accompanying Issa’s work in Amman. “Using what was available, I created several places on stomach medicine packages, while patients suffer from stomach issues – and all of Gaza suffers from the hunger of empty stomachs.”Shala and his family were displaced from Deir al-Balah by heavy shelling, leaving behind their home, his studio and 30 years of artwork inside. He went on creating, using “whatever he could find” – scraps of paper, watercolours and pens, creating colourful works ranging from the cacti he missed from their balcony to the familiar streets of Gaza.View image in fullscreenTwo landscapes by Majed Shala. The artist was forced to leave behind 30 years of his work when he and his family were displaced from their home.Photograph: Courtesy of Darat al Funun“As the war went on, I started to document the real-life scenes of displacement and exile that have affected every part of our daily lives,” says the gallery text accompanying his work.“These scenes remind me of the stories our elders told us about the 1948 Nakba, but what we’re living through now feels far more devastating, far worse than what people endured back then.”Explore more on these topicsGlobal developmentArtIsrael-Gaza warGazaMiddle East and north AfricaPalestinian territoriesShareReuse this content

Charcoal drawings of life during the war in Gaza by Basel Al Maqousi.Photograph: Courtesy of Darat al FununView image in fullscreen

Charcoal drawings of life during the war in Gaza by Basel Al Maqousi.Photograph: Courtesy of Darat al Funun

Global development

‘My work is a scream for help’: Gaza’s artists document life under fire

Work illustrating the war’s brutality but also the resilience of four Palestinian artists, is being exhibited at the Darat al Funan in Jordan

Supported byAbout this contentGeneva AbdulMon 21 Apr 2025 06.00 CESTLast modified on Mon 21 Apr 2025 06.01 CESTShare

Supported byAbout this content

Supported by

Geneva AbdulMon 21 Apr 2025 06.00 CESTLast modified on Mon 21 Apr 2025 06.01 CEST

Geneva Abdul

Basel El Maqousi says he is amazed to be alive at the end of each day. Living in Gaza, where more than 64,000 Palestinianshave been killedby Israel’s assault, and with the tally rising still, his amazement returns, he says, with each morning light.“The war began and life stopped. There is no work or art, we just try to run from one place to another, searching for salvation from the bombing and killing that pursues us. We walk quickly to search for water and food, and running has become the master of all times,” he says.“In these moments, we lose a part of our humanity, our dignity and everything that is beyond endurance.”El Maqousiis among nearly 2 million Palestinians in Gaza living under the forced displacement and Israeli bombing that has reduced much of the territory to rubble.His work is among that of four Gazan artists who feature in an exhibition entitled Under Fire at theDarat al Fununin Amman, Jordan. All are still creating and using whatever materials they can find, despite living under the daily bombardment.View image in fullscreenBefore the war, Basel Al Maqousi was an art teacher in Beit Lahia; now he says his depictions of life under bombardment are a message to the world.Photograph: Courtesy of Darat al FununWith his black charcoal pencil,El Maqousihas created haunting images of the catastrophic war. His work depicts men stripped and blindfolded, women in mournful embraces and children with missing limbs amid a sea of tents.“My art is a message I carry to the world that we, the people of Palestine, are under occupation and deserve to live with dignity and freedom like the rest of the peoples of the world,” he says.Before October 2023, El Maqousi worked as an art teacher in the northernGazacity of Beit Lahia. He has been exhibited internationally and has attended residencies in India, Algeria and the US.These notebooks and pens were my refuge, and I placed them in my small bag without worry, as if I were writing my memoirs dailySohail SalemNow, having been displaced from Khan Younis, Rafah, Deir al-Balah, Nuseirat and Az-Zawaida, El Maqousi says he maintains his humanity through the more than 100 workshops he has organised with children, mothers and people with disabilities, entitled Artistic Residence, Not Displacement.He began by gathering children near his tent and giving them the materials to create as their mothers looked on, smiling at the sight of their brief respite. One of the most difficult workshops was with mothers, he says, who cried as they drew their homes and dreams. He cried with them.View image in fullscreenPalestinian artist Basel El Maqousi during one of the workshops for children he hosts in Gaza.Photograph: Courtesy of the Artist“This is what I do during the war. I know very well that it is not much, but I also know that the children were given the opportunity for some time to forget the war, the fear, and the hunger. To forget the time, the suffering and the nightmares day and night,” he says.“I have nothing else to do and I love what I do.”The Under Fire exhibition is the latest example of Darat Al Funun’s dedicated programming in solidarity with Gaza, says its arts and culture director, Khaled al-Bashir.View image in fullscreenThe exhibition at Darat al Funun in Amman, Jordan.Photograph: Courtesy of Darat al Funun“This particular display is especially important within this context, given the circumstances under which these artists continue to create – and their remarkable determination to do so, from within Gaza and under displacement. Needless to say, it also emerges from the absolute necessity to centre Gazan voices at the moment, and the urgency of doing so,” says Bashir.skip past newsletter promotionSign up toGlobal DispatchFree newsletterGet a different world view with a roundup of the best news, features and pictures, curated by our global development teamEnter your email addressSign upPrivacy Notice:Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see ourPrivacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the GooglePrivacy PolicyandTerms of Serviceapply.after newsletter promotion‘It’s not our job to make photos that are easy to look at’: the female photographers exposing the cost of conflict in 2024Read moreAll four artists in the exhibition were students at a summer programme run by Darat Al Funun under the Syrian artist Marwan Kassab Bachi, and went on to help establish two of Gaza’s major art spaces and collectives. Sohail Salem and Raed Issa were co-founders ofthe Eltiqa Group, and El Maqosui and Majed Shala helped to create Shababeek for Contemporary Art – both of which have been destroyed in the war.On display are Salem’s pen drawings in blue, black and red ink, inside numerous Unrwa notebooks. He describes his work as “a message to the world” and “a scream for help”.View image in fullscreenSohail Salem draws in Unwra notebooks using pens.Photograph: undefined/Courtesy of Darat al Funun“It was a mission for me to release a visual store of misery I had stored in my mind. This was most brutal when I was forced to pass over the bodies of martyrs during the displacement. Overcrowding of the displaced and listening to the news on the radio at high volume, I tried to separate myself from my surroundings every morning and draw,” says Salem, who buys his tools from a street vendor in Deir al-Balah, where he lives in a garage.In January 2023, Salem was a university art teacher. He was arrested by the Israel Defense Forces at his family home in Al-Rimal, separated from his family and handcuffed and blindfolded before being interrogated. He recalls how a letter of the Hebrew alphabet was written on his forehead, leaving men around him to speculate if this meant he would be killed first. He was later released and able to find his family in Deir al-Balah, where they had fled.View image in fullscreenSome of Salem’s notebooks.He says his art is a way of releasing the visual store of memory he carries in his mind.Photograph: Courtesy of Darat al Funun“The idea of drawing seemed ridiculous. What could I draw in such circumstances? And why? My brain was damaged from the sound of intense bombing that still resonated in my head,” says Salem. Before the war he taught at Al-Aqsa University, and had his work exhibited locally and internationally.“These small notebooks and pens were my refuge, and I placed them in my small bag without worry, as if I were writing my memoirs daily.”The exhibition also includes Issa’s portraits of women and children, using the only materials he could find – he draws on medicine packaging, using karkadeh (hibiscus flower tea) and pomegranate juice alongside ink.View image in fullscreenA selection of Raed Issa’s protraits from the exhibition. Issa draws on medicine packaging using tea, juice and ink.Photograph: Courtesy of Darat al Funun“In the most recent displacement, I couldn’t bring my art supplies with me,” says the text accompanying Issa’s work in Amman. “Using what was available, I created several places on stomach medicine packages, while patients suffer from stomach issues – and all of Gaza suffers from the hunger of empty stomachs.”Shala and his family were displaced from Deir al-Balah by heavy shelling, leaving behind their home, his studio and 30 years of artwork inside. He went on creating, using “whatever he could find” – scraps of paper, watercolours and pens, creating colourful works ranging from the cacti he missed from their balcony to the familiar streets of Gaza.View image in fullscreenTwo landscapes by Majed Shala. The artist was forced to leave behind 30 years of his work when he and his family were displaced from their home.Photograph: Courtesy of Darat al Funun“As the war went on, I started to document the real-life scenes of displacement and exile that have affected every part of our daily lives,” says the gallery text accompanying his work.“These scenes remind me of the stories our elders told us about the 1948 Nakba, but what we’re living through now feels far more devastating, far worse than what people endured back then.”Explore more on these topicsGlobal developmentArtIsrael-Gaza warGazaMiddle East and north AfricaPalestinian territoriesShareReuse this content

“The war began and life stopped. There is no work or art, we just try to run from one place to another, searching for salvation from the bombing and killing that pursues us. We walk quickly to search for water and food, and running has become the master of all times,” he says.

“In these moments, we lose a part of our humanity, our dignity and everything that is beyond endurance.”

El Maqousiis among nearly 2 million Palestinians in Gaza living under the forced displacement and Israeli bombing that has reduced much of the territory to rubble.

His work is among that of four Gazan artists who feature in an exhibition entitled Under Fire at theDarat al Fununin Amman, Jordan. All are still creating and using whatever materials they can find, despite living under the daily bombardment.

View image in fullscreen

With his black charcoal pencil,El Maqousihas created haunting images of the catastrophic war. His work depicts men stripped and blindfolded, women in mournful embraces and children with missing limbs amid a sea of tents.

“My art is a message I carry to the world that we, the people of Palestine, are under occupation and deserve to live with dignity and freedom like the rest of the peoples of the world,” he says.

Before October 2023, El Maqousi worked as an art teacher in the northernGazacity of Beit Lahia. He has been exhibited internationally and has attended residencies in India, Algeria and the US.

Now, having been displaced from Khan Younis, Rafah, Deir al-Balah, Nuseirat and Az-Zawaida, El Maqousi says he maintains his humanity through the more than 100 workshops he has organised with children, mothers and people with disabilities, entitled Artistic Residence, Not Displacement.

He began by gathering children near his tent and giving them the materials to create as their mothers looked on, smiling at the sight of their brief respite. One of the most difficult workshops was with mothers, he says, who cried as they drew their homes and dreams. He cried with them.

View image in fullscreen

“This is what I do during the war. I know very well that it is not much, but I also know that the children were given the opportunity for some time to forget the war, the fear, and the hunger. To forget the time, the suffering and the nightmares day and night,” he says.

“I have nothing else to do and I love what I do.”

The Under Fire exhibition is the latest example of Darat Al Funun’s dedicated programming in solidarity with Gaza, says its arts and culture director, Khaled al-Bashir.

View image in fullscreen

“This particular display is especially important within this context, given the circumstances under which these artists continue to create – and their remarkable determination to do so, from within Gaza and under displacement. Needless to say, it also emerges from the absolute necessity to centre Gazan voices at the moment, and the urgency of doing so,” says Bashir.

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‘It’s not our job to make photos that are easy to look at’: the female photographers exposing the cost of conflict in 2024Read more

‘It’s not our job to make photos that are easy to look at’: the female photographers exposing the cost of conflict in 2024

All four artists in the exhibition were students at a summer programme run by Darat Al Funun under the Syrian artist Marwan Kassab Bachi, and went on to help establish two of Gaza’s major art spaces and collectives. Sohail Salem and Raed Issa were co-founders ofthe Eltiqa Group, and El Maqosui and Majed Shala helped to create Shababeek for Contemporary Art – both of which have been destroyed in the war.

On display are Salem’s pen drawings in blue, black and red ink, inside numerous Unrwa notebooks. He describes his work as “a message to the world” and “a scream for help”.

View image in fullscreen

“It was a mission for me to release a visual store of misery I had stored in my mind. This was most brutal when I was forced to pass over the bodies of martyrs during the displacement. Overcrowding of the displaced and listening to the news on the radio at high volume, I tried to separate myself from my surroundings every morning and draw,” says Salem, who buys his tools from a street vendor in Deir al-Balah, where he lives in a garage.

In January 2023, Salem was a university art teacher. He was arrested by the Israel Defense Forces at his family home in Al-Rimal, separated from his family and handcuffed and blindfolded before being interrogated. He recalls how a letter of the Hebrew alphabet was written on his forehead, leaving men around him to speculate if this meant he would be killed first. He was later released and able to find his family in Deir al-Balah, where they had fled.

View image in fullscreen

“The idea of drawing seemed ridiculous. What could I draw in such circumstances? And why? My brain was damaged from the sound of intense bombing that still resonated in my head,” says Salem. Before the war he taught at Al-Aqsa University, and had his work exhibited locally and internationally.

“These small notebooks and pens were my refuge, and I placed them in my small bag without worry, as if I were writing my memoirs daily.”

The exhibition also includes Issa’s portraits of women and children, using the only materials he could find – he draws on medicine packaging, using karkadeh (hibiscus flower tea) and pomegranate juice alongside ink.

View image in fullscreen

“In the most recent displacement, I couldn’t bring my art supplies with me,” says the text accompanying Issa’s work in Amman. “Using what was available, I created several places on stomach medicine packages, while patients suffer from stomach issues – and all of Gaza suffers from the hunger of empty stomachs.”

Shala and his family were displaced from Deir al-Balah by heavy shelling, leaving behind their home, his studio and 30 years of artwork inside. He went on creating, using “whatever he could find” – scraps of paper, watercolours and pens, creating colourful works ranging from the cacti he missed from their balcony to the familiar streets of Gaza.

View image in fullscreen

“As the war went on, I started to document the real-life scenes of displacement and exile that have affected every part of our daily lives,” says the gallery text accompanying his work.

“These scenes remind me of the stories our elders told us about the 1948 Nakba, but what we’re living through now feels far more devastating, far worse than what people endured back then.”

Explore more on these topicsGlobal developmentArtIsrael-Gaza warGazaMiddle East and north AfricaPalestinian territoriesShareReuse this content

Global developmentArtIsrael-Gaza warGazaMiddle East and north AfricaPalestinian territories

Global development

Art

Israel-Gaza war

Gaza

Middle East and north Africa

Palestinian territories

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