Amid the ruins of destroyed homes and luxury from the air strikes, Gaza artists sit with brushes at hand, turning despair into a challenge. The flour bags become panels, and human aid boxes are converted into pictures and every coating blow tells a story.

For more than 76 years, the occupation of Israel is a threat to Palestinian culture through displacement and destruction. But even in the face of the current war, as Israel killed more than 61,700 PalestiniansGaza artists refuse to disappear.

Some pocket artists managed to turn pain into hope while photographing the harsh facts of war and displacement. With limited resources, they continue to produce, saying that their art reflects the will to survive.

Cultural destruction in Gaza includes the destruction of dozens of cultural centers, museums and handicrafts, including old pottery and manuscripts. The ceasefire, which started on January 19, has provided a rest period, but experts believed that the full range of damage is unknown.

In the latest official report on the situation, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics and the Ministry of Culture said in March that 45 books and artists have been killed in Gaza since the conflict erupted on October 7, 2023 and 32 cultural centers and 12 museums destroyed. The numbers are now likely to be much higher.

Among the dead is an artist Mahasen Al -SheateebHe who died in October in an Israeli air strike in the Gabalia Refugee camp in northern Gaza. She was killed with her entire family.

Attempt to “erase” Palestinian culture

While the Israeli army constantly claimed that its operations focused on the fighters participating in attacks on Israel, Gaza artists and art experts claim that Israel is determined to survey Palestinian culture.

Sobhi Qanqa, a visual artist and lecturer at Al -Qaeda University, who also coordinates the visual arts club in Abdel -Mahn, the teeth, said. “Many Palestinian artists have lost their works, whether by detonating their homes or destroying the cultural centers that include these pieces.”

Palestinian art traces its roots to the effects of Byzantine and the development of Islamic traditions. After 1967, when Israel began to occupy Gaza, art became a powerful tool for resistance with artists such as Kamal Blowa and Suleiman Mansour using their work to confirm the Palestinian identity in the occupation.

Technical education was combined in the academic scene in Gaza in the mid -1990s with the Fine Arts Program at Al -Aqsa University. The artistic scene quickly grown, reinforced by the Eltiqa collection for the launch of contemporary art for 2002 as the first modern artistic space in Gaza and followed by Shabak of Contemporary Art in 2009. But all the main artistic spaces-Eltiqa and Shababek were destroyed and excluded-before Israel in the war.

Silent conflict certificates

Hussein Al -Jergawi, 18, suffered from displacement five times due to the war. The conflict cost the entire academic year.

The war deeply affected his artistic journey, and moved to an unconventional broker: human flour bags like paintings. His paintings on the symbols of staying in the besieged land show cracks, cracks and other symbols that reflect the broken presence of those in Gaza.

“When I draw on the flour bag, it seems as if I write our history with a brush dipped in suffering and flexibility,” Al -Jergawi said.

Al -Jerjoy said that the choice of relief bags is a natural response to the scarcity of traditional technical supplies in Gaza.

“In a refugee tent, surrounded by empty UNRWA He said: “The flour bags, I decided to draw on it to pick up the pain of war and my story about displacement.”

Despite the war, Al -Jergawi participated in art galleries and workshops, including artists as an optical artist with the Qatan Foundation and in Shababak. One of his paintings in the occupied West Bank was displayed in the Qatan exhibition, which is run by the Qatan Foundation, which had an effective role in caring for the artistic community in Gaza, and supporting children in specializations such as drawing, theater and singing.

“Even after losing a lot, a technician remains a challenge,” he said.

Describing one of his paintings, Al -Jergawi said, “The flour bags are silently witnessing the stories of the displaced, pending survival. With printed words that emphasize a frozen human condition, the high and transparent hands – some flour that holds, and others empty – talk to the desperate search for hope.”

He added, “The faces are stories of fatigue and hunger. The eyes are not only about bread but for dignity. The faded crowd in the background, like shadows, is waiting in an endless line.”

Al -Jergoy looks at his art as a defense of the Palestinian identity.

“The profession seeks to erase our culture and identity. But art preserves our memory. Every painting I create is a document, telling the world that we are alive, dream and stick to our roots.”

Converting pain into art

Ibrahim Mahna, 19, who is another Palestinian artist, transformed the humanitarian aid funds that were used to assemble food and other basics in artworks said that the embodiment of pain and the flexibility of the displaced families due to the war.

“These boxes are not only food containers. They have become symbols of the terrible social conditions we face today while also reflecting our stability of resistance and the ability to endure.”

MAHNA began to use relief boxes when traditional technical supplies have become accessible due to war.

From the rough surface of one of his paintings in his box, pictures of the hollow faces appear, shouting silently. Behind them, tents rise in a barren landscape surrounded by palm trees.

“These faces are my popularity,” said Mahna.

His work often depicts tents and numbers that extend generations, which reflects the suffering of the Palestinians who have lost everything.

Mahna said: “Tents have become all that I left – a fragile shelter that does not provide any protection from the cruelty of nature or the weight of their tragedy. Their daily struggles, and ensure that their stories remain a testament to their existence.”

He referred to a woman in the midst of one of his paintings, her strong, but exhausting face embodies Palestinian motherhood.

Behind men and children, a scar due to war and poverty. These faces symbolize people who refuse to erases. “

As for our essence, art is resistance and identity: “The occupation not only takes our land. It tries to erased. It allows me to draw on relief boxes to restore our story.”

QOTA said there is no doubt that the Israeli occupation has strongly targeted Palestinian art and culture.

Although Mahana and Girgawi managed to continue production, Qouta said that the war left many “artists who are unable to create because of psychological shock.”

He added: “Many were forced to focus on supporting their families and finding safety.”