Israeli bombardment in Gaza has killed artists too

Seven weeks on, Israel’s war on Gaza has reached a significant development in the form of a four-day truce that will see Hamas hostages swapped for Palestinian prisoners, which include women and children — some as young as 14 years old.

The agreement involves aid provisions into the besieged enclave, where Gazans are faced with life-threatening shortages of food, water, medical supplies, and fuel.

At the time of writing, Israeli airstrikes and military advancement in Gaza have resulted in a death toll of 14,854 people, all with names and stories of their own. Here is a spotlight on several Palestinian artists, poets, and more, amongst an unknown number of others, who were devastatingly killed by Israel’s indiscriminate attacks:

Heba Abu Nada

Poet, novelist, and educator Heba Abu Nada was killed after an Israeli airstrike hit her home in Khan Younis on October 20, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Culture.

The 32-year-old made a name for herself in the literary world through a collection of published poetry and an award-winning novel, Oxygen is Not for the Dead. Her book won second place at the Sharjah Awards for Arab Creativity in 2017.

After her win, she told Women of Palestine in an interview that learning new things, ranging from poetry and prose to sciences of the Quran, cooking, and more, was her passion in life. In her free time, the writer enjoyed watching anime.

Abu Nada was born in Saudi Arabia in 1991, and studied biochemistry at the Islamic University of Gaza, followed by a master’s degree in clinical nutrition from Al-Azhar University.

On October 8, she posted for the last time on X, “The city night is dark except for the glow of missiles, silent except for the sound of bombing, frightening except for the reassurance of supplication, black except for the light of the martyrs. Good night, Gaza.”

Heba Zagout

She was an artist and educator who spent her life documenting Palestinian heritage and history under Israeli occupation through vibrant acrylic paintings that often featured skylines, homes, and portraits, from her homeland.

An Israeli air strike killed the 39-year-old and two of her four children, Adam and Mahmoud, on October 13.

She shared her paintings on her Instagram, earning an income and offering art lovers from all over the world glimpses of Palestinian life at the same time.

In one post that showcased an olive tree, which represents the deep-rooted connection of Palestinians to their land, she wrote about how olive harvest season was a special childhood memory of hers.

She received a diploma in graphic design from Gaza Training College and also holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Al Aqsa University.

Zagout, who was also an art teacher in a public school in Gaza, wrote in the caption: “Family members used to gather with me and pick olives. My mother then stores them with lemon slices and peppers to keep them all year round. Thank you, mom.”

In 2021, she put on a solo exhibition called My Children in Quarantine. In a video interview filmed a short while before her untimely death, Zagout said: “I consider art a message that I deliver to the outside world through my expression of the Palestinian cause and Palestinian identity.”

Muhammed Sami Qariqa

Palestinian artist Muhammed Sami Qariqa was one of the victims killed in the Al Ahli Arab Hospital explosion that claimed an estimated 500 lives on October 17.

The blast was caused by an air strike that Hamas and the health ministry in Gaza said came from Israel, while the Israeli military attributed the strike to a misfired rocket launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, which also denied the allegation.

Qariqa was seeking refuge at the Christian-run hospital with his family. The 24-year-old, who was also a volunteer at the Palestinian NGO Tamer Institute for Community Education, entertained children at the hospital, where he filmed and posted a video of him playing games with them.

In a Facebook post on October 14, he wrote about shouldering “the responsibility to convey the news and events inside the hospital, capturing a set of painful details with my phone camera including photo, video, voice, writing and drawing.”

“Today I am collecting many of these stories with different techniques. Today I became the journalist who conveyed them the picture of the outside world. Today [I am] making new friends with everyone and forming a very large and productive dialogue.

"Today I bear the responsibility for the internal and external message about these innocents. Today I try to reassure these families as much as I can and tell them that this place is safe,” Qariqa wrote,

She added, “But…A short while ago, this place was attacked by the Israeli occupation.”

That same day, three days before the deadly hospital explosion, hospital officials said Israeli rocket fire had struck the building.

Sky News reported that Qariqa had been volunteering with Tamer’s youth team since he was 14. Speaking of Qariqa, the NGO told the British channel "He gave us everything. He was the soul of the art studio at Tamer, as he was the one to open it every day, putting the paintings up, mixing the colours and waiting for other youth members to arrive.

"He loved life, he loved Gaza and he loved his story."

Inas al Saqa

A Palestinian playwright and actor, Al Saqa was taking shelter in a building in Gaza along with her five children in late October. An Israeli air strike targeted the shelter in late October, killing her along with three of her children. Two of her children survived the brutal attack.

At the beginning of the Israeli carpet bombing, Al Saqa and her children were sheltering at Gaza’s Orthodox Cultural Centre along with 500 other families, but Israeli authorities warned them to evacuate the building.

She immediately moved to her friend's apartment which was eventually targeted by the Israeli air force.

Al Saqa, a renowned name in the Palestinian theatre community, had migrated to Cairo several years ago but had recently returned to her native Gaza.

According to some local accounts, she had relocated to Cairo for a few years but her heart always remained in Gaza, to the point that she ultimately felt the pull to return to her beloved city.

Yousef Dawas

A promising writer and a member of the We Are Not Numbers collective in Gaza, Dawas was killed along with several members of his family in the northern town of Beit Lahia on Saturday, October 14.

A student of psychology, one of his writings titled “Who will pay for the 20 years we lost?” recounts the destruction of his family’s orchard by an Israeli missile strike in May 2022.

The orchard trees produced olives, oranges, clementines, loquat, guavas, lemons, and pomegranates, and its loss “destroyed an important piece of our past. Our family’s history. Our heritage,” he wrote.