By Dalia Abu Ramadan
This text was initially revealed by Truthout
Israel killed one painter as she labored on her canvas. One other painter survived the destruction of all her life’s work.
Regardless of the horror and brutality of life below the relentless torture of occupation, the world is astonished that Gazans nonetheless maintain on to hope. We create hope for others once we insist on believing that Gaza can rise once more from the rubble, at the same time as we hear the sounds of bombardment destroying our properties, snatching the lives of our family members, and shattering our goals.
Painter Frans Al-Salmi continued to create till her final second. She was killed by the Israeli army on June 30, 2025, as she labored on a canvas in a seaside café — her portray stained along with her personal blood fairly than its meant colours.
Al-Salmi was not the primary or the final artist to be murdered on this genocide. But her killing and that of numerous others haven’t damaged the spirit of Gaza’s artists. I’ve seen their steadfastness day after day in artwork lessons led by my instructor, painter Awatif Al-Saqqa.
Al-Saqqa holds a level in effective arts and has spent over a decade instructing drawing in Gaza. She was my artwork instructor in center college — recognized not just for her light spirit and vibrant power, but additionally for the way in which she made creativity really feel like security. Her expertise took her far past our borders. Al-Saqqa represented Gaza in worldwide conferences and took part in quite a few artwork exhibitions, each regionally and overseas — particularly in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. Her work, wealthy with life and colour, discovered properties throughout the Gulf.
However Al-Saqqa wasn’t simply my instructor. She was additionally my neighbor. We lived in the identical constructing — till the warfare decreased it to rubble. Her condominium, like mine, was demolished. And with it, each certainly one of her work was destroyed.
Al-Saqqa advised me:
When the warfare started, my life turned the other way up. The whole lot modified. Artwork was not a supply of revenue — it turned irrelevant. All I may take into consideration was easy methods to keep alive. When the occupation ordered us to evacuate to the south, it was devastating for all of us. I had no alternative however to flee with my household. We ended up residing in a tent for 9 months. The situations have been brutal, particularly throughout that first yr of warfare. It was a shock we have been by no means ready for. However even in all that, I refused to surrender. I looked for paints and canvases within the south, however they have been practically unattainable to search out. Life within the south is nothing just like the north. The north had every thing — it was a metropolis. The south felt like a rural world, stripped of sources. Nonetheless, I took out a pocket book and began to attract. I joined small artwork workshops with different painters by the ocean. In each line I drew, I used to be looking for life. And even through the instances I used to be away from portray, I discovered myself expressing my expertise via cooking — adorning dishes like they have been canvases, turning easy meals into moments of colour and care.
When a ceasefire started on January 19, 2025 — a fragile pause that lasted solely two months — the displaced households returned to the north, and Al-Saqqa returned with them. She was deeply grateful to go away the tent behind.
But, even exhausted from the lengthy months within the south, the very first thing Al-Saqqa did upon returning was seek for paints and canvases. She discovered some, however their costs have been terribly excessive attributable to their shortage and the problem of bringing provides into Gaza. If even meals struggles to enter the territory, how may delicate artwork supplies arrive with ease?
Within the north, Al-Saqqa targeted on artwork workshops that assist folks with particular wants, in addition to these battling psychological trauma attributable to stress or the lack of their households. A few of these workshops are funded by worldwide organizations, whereas others are pushed completely by private initiative, offering a protected area the place contributors can categorical themselves via portray, with all obligatory supplies provided.
The group Al-Saqqa works with locations nice emphasis on therapeutic psychological trauma, and serves all age teams going through numerous challenges, together with bodily, auditory, or visible disabilities.
“I hope this sanctuary for these communities continues to develop, and that the world acknowledges that artwork is a robust instrument for psychological therapeutic,” Al-Saqqa tells me.
One story that deeply touched her was that of an extremely inventive and distinctive younger artwork pupil named Misk, who’s visually impaired. Al-Saqqa displays, “If that baby, who can’t see, continues to color … how can I ever cease?”
On September 3, I spoke with Al-Saqqa whereas she was nonetheless with me within the north. The state of affairs had grown insufferable. Israel threatened to erase the complete Gaza Governorate and invade it by land, ordering us to evacuate to the south — or face demise. At the moment, Al-Saqqa advised me, “I’ll keep till my final breath. How can I go away when I’m holding exhibitions for the kids?”
On August 28, we had organized a wide ranging exhibition titled “Daughter of the Moon,” supported by the Spark for Creativity and Innovation in partnership with the Save Youth Future Society. The venue was stuffed with folks — everybody decided to not flee. In October, I used to be scheduled to hitch Al-Saqqa and different artists from Gaza in an exhibition in Germany to showcase a few of our works.
That was the final dialog I had with Al-Saqqa. A single week handed, and the state of affairs descended into chaos — demise was chasing us with each step. Nonetheless, we clung to our phrases: “We’ll keep till our final breath.”
I used to be lastly compelled to flee to the south when the Israeli forces struck the constructing the place I used to be residing. As for Al-Saqqa, on September 20, she too was compelled to flee after Israeli tanks surrounded her in Tal al-Hawa, an space that had turn out to be a lethal battlefield.
In Gaza, we won’t lose our dedication. The relentless, cruel warfare that continues to kill us all, sparing nobody, can’t bury our abilities — for they’re our resistance. Awatif Al-Saqqa continues making artwork, supporting her folks, and she is going to persist till her final breath.
How can we ever overlook Frans Al-Salmi, who was killed on June 30 whereas portray an outline of a martyr on her canvas? Straight away, her personal destiny turned the identical destiny of the determine she was portray — her canvas, which she meant to glow with crimson paint, was soaked in her personal blood. Such is Gaza — a spot the place demise haunts us, following us all over the place.
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