“Paintings Born from the Womb of Suffering ”Artists in Gaza Paint the War

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In the heart of displacement tents spread across schools that have been turned into shelters, Palestinian artists continue to transform the suffering of the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip into artworks that reflect human pain and document stories of loss, fear, and hunger—an attempt to resist oppression and preserve hope in life.

Inside a simple displacement tent in Gaza City, 18-year-old Palestinian artist *Marah Khaled* was engrossed in completing her latest painting, using primitive tools yet carrying intense emotions that encapsulate more than two years of war and hardship.

The tent where she works has been turned into a small art gallery in the courtyard of a school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which has become a refuge for thousands of displaced people after their homes were destroyed.

Black and white dominate Marah’s paintings, which depict the faces of people she encountered during displacement and war. Some of these faces speak of sadness and brokenness, while others express terror, despair, and fear of the unknown.

During a short break from painting, Marah said her artistic talent had developed remarkably during the war, explaining:
“There was constant psychological pressure and fear, and I couldn’t find any way to release this energy except through drawing.”

She added that her reliance on black and white stems from the fact that they “reflect the magnitude of negative energy and harsh emotions that accumulated inside me because of the war.”

Marah confirmed that her artworks have come to document painful human scenes, including images of people killed during the war, journalists, as well as depictions of hunger, famine, and continuous displacement.

### Drawing with Soot Instead of Ink

Amid the severe shortage of art supplies and the closure of border crossings, Marah was forced to invent alternative means to continue drawing. She resorted to using soot collected from cooking pots as a substitute for ink pens.

Scraping soot off one of the pots, she said:
“During long periods of the war, I couldn’t obtain drawing tools, so I ground the soot from cooking utensils and used it to create paintings that expressed the emotions inside me.”

### Aid Boxes Turned into Canvases

Marah’s experience was not unique. Palestinian visual artist *Ahmad Mahna* turned to using humanitarian aid boxes as surfaces for painting amid the scarcity of artistic materials.

In his small studio inside *Al-Bureij refugee camp* in central Gaza, Mahna was cutting cardboard boxes from aid parcels provided by the World Food Programme, transforming them into art canvases.

Mahna said the closure of crossings and lack of supplies pushed him to seek alternatives:
“I didn’t have any drawing tools, so I began using aid boxes to portray the suffering we live with every day.”

### “A Battle for Survival”

Mahna was putting the final touches on a painting depicting a woman embracing her three children—“those who remain of her family”—in a scene that conveys a daily struggle for survival.

He explained that the painting evokes a famous line by the late Palestinian poet *Mahmoud Darwish: *“On this land, there is that which deserves life,” noting the presence of a rising sun in the background as a symbol of hope, despite the devastation surrounding the figures.

Amid destruction, displacement, and loss, Palestinian artists in Gaza insist on transforming pain into an act of creativity, affirming that art is not a luxury in times of war, but a means of survival and a living testimony to the suffering and resilience of the Palestinian people.

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