Gaza Artists Persist Through War and Ceasefire, Finding Survival in Art

Key facts

• A ceasefire came into effect in Gaza on 10 October 2025.
• More than 1,200 Palestinians have been killed since last October, per the UN Human Rights Office.
• Asma’a Jeathni’s father died in June 2024 after kidney dialysis was interrupted; her home was destroyed two months later.
• Jeathni’s series Struggle of the Sparrows—A Visual Exile is in Wasla, an online exhibition by Shababeek for Contemporary Art.
• Jehad Jarbou lost her father and brother Hassan on 9 November 2023; she later gave birth by caesarean in a tent.
• Ahmed Muhanna’s works on aid boxes led to the WFP exhibition Gaza: Stories of Hope and Resilience, shown in nine European cities last year and seven more in May–June this year.
• Raed Issa left Gaza for Marseille in April 2025 and showed in Ses racines s’étendent jusqu’à 7000 km at La Compagnie in Marseille this spring and summer.
• Shababeek for Contemporary Art, one of Gaza’s oldest contemporary art spaces, was destroyed in the first year of the war.