Young Palestinian artists in Gaza staged an impromptu exhibit Tuesday, seeking another way to show the world what has happened during the war and the fragile cease-fire.
The row of paintings, like much of Gaza life itself, was displayed outdoors, open to the weather and curious stares. There was a painting of a dove, a bullet hole, a person’s silhouette in a territory where the war between Israeli forces and the Palestinian resistance group Hamas has killed well over 72,000 people.
It was a sunny day in Bureij in central Gaza. Children shouted and played as admirers of the paintings took photos and reflected.
"They painted their feelings, their ambitions, their hopes, their visions, over four months during a continuous workshop in my studio," said Ghanem Al-Din, who organized the exhibit of dozens of paintings.
Obay al-Qarshali, 21, was one of the artists. He said he fled his home in Gaza City in late 2023 when Israel launched its genocidal war. He took only what he could in his hurry, leaving over 30 of his paintings behind.
They are now lost in the bombing and destruction, he said.
His painting on display showed broken glass, cars topped with mattresses and other belongings and the debris of buildings. All are too familiar to him and hundreds of thousands of fellow Palestinians who have been displaced, often more than once.
Al-Qarshali said he had changed locations at least seven times in the war.
"Because of how much we were displaced and suffered in moving and carrying our belongings, the tents, the crowds and so much more, I wanted to express something that deeply troubled me: That we left our homes and our safe places, forced to flee, scatter and change our location. This piece expresses so much," he said.
"Critical demilitarization talks with Hamas are continuing," former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, a key member of the U.S.-created Board of Peace meant to focus on Gaza, told a U.N. Security Council meeting Tuesday.
Reconstruction likely will cost over $70 billion and take a decade, a report by the United Nations and the European Union said last week.
It said Gaza’s economy has contracted by 84%. More than 371,000 housing units have been destroyed. Over half of Gaza’s hospitals are "non-functional." Nearly all schools are destroyed or damaged in the territory of over 2 million people.
In a report Tuesday, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Israel has destroyed or damaged about 90% of Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure. And a Mercy Corps study found only 7% of Gaza’s agricultural infrastructure remains functional.
While large-scale fighting has eased since the cease-fire took effect in October, Israeli forces have continued near-daily strikes and fire around military-held zones, killing over 800 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The ministry maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.
On Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike hit a car in Gaza City, killing four men, according to al-Shifa Hospital.
The strike happened away from the so-called "Yellow Line" that separates Israeli-controlled areas from the rest of Gaza. Israel’s military claimed it struck a resistance group location, with no details.
The bodies were wrapped in white and placed on the ground, outdoors, so a crowd could mourn.
And a 9-year-old boy was killed by Israeli fire while gathering firewood in the southern city of Khan Younis, about 400 meters (1,312 feet) west of the Yellow Line, Nasser Hospital said. Israel’s military did not immediately comment.
An Associated Press (AP) video showed siblings crying over the boy at the morgue.
"What is the guilt of those children," a woman said during the funeral. "God is plaguing you, Israel."
