In pictures: Gaza student uses music to rise from ashes of her bombed home
Rahaf Nasser fled to Deir al Balah in central Gaza after Israel bombed her home and music instruments and her university as well. These days Nasser spends her days playing songs amid the rubble.
"I lost all my memories, all my childhood toys, in my home. So, I came here without anything, we couldn't bring anything with us. I left all my music instruments there. So, I borrowed my father’s friend’s guitar..." / Photo: AA
In the midst of Gaza's destruction caused by Israel's ongoing genocidal war, Rahaf Nasser, 19, is using music to convey her community's pain.
Nasser — who lost her home and musical instruments during Israeli bombardment — plays music with a guitar she borrowed from her father's friend after fleeing to Deir al Balah in central Gaza.
She says she was unable to complete her medical studies after Israeli forces bombed the Faculty of Medicine at al-Azhar University.
Her songs are aimed at conveying the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza during harsh siege and a carnage that does not appear to end anytime soon.
"I use music to deliver my message and my voice to the whole world, that we love life, we love to live. Our children love to play. The children out there. Everyone thinks that we love to die, that we love the situation that we are in. But that is wrong," she told Reuters last week.
"Our children love to live, love to be alive, to play with each other. Here we cannot do anything of that, they cannot do anything of that, they just want peace, they just want peace to be around there."
Here are some of her inspiring pictures
Nasser's songs shed light on the struggles of Palestinians in Gaza under Israeli oppression.
Nasser spends her days playing songs, sending out her message: "Our children just want peace"
Palestinian children gather and listen to Nasser while she sings.
Nasser performs among the ruins of a building destroyed by Israel in Gaza.
Israel has killed over 37,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, in Gaza so far.
Most of Gaza was reduced to ruins by Israel, and Palestinians face severe lack of basic necessities including food, water and electricity.
Forcibly displaced by Israel, Nasser, creates melodies on the guitar borrowed from her father's friend.
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