When war erupted in Gaza, Palestinian artists had only one way to share their work expressing the harrowing reality of the conflict: having it smuggled out of the besieged territory. For six months, they handed over paintings and other artworks to people leaving Gaza through its Rafah border crossing with Egypt until Israeli ground forces closed it in May when they took control of the frontier. "The paintings document the brutality of war and massacres.
.. carrying pain and sorrow, but also embodying an unwavering resolve," said Mohammad Shaqdih.
He is deputy director of Darat al-Funun, an art gallery in the Jordanian capital Amman exhibiting pieces that were smuggled out in a show entitled "Under Fire". While the works themselves managed to escape the war-torn territory, the four artists who created them -- Basel al-Maqousi, Raed Issa, Majed Shala and Suhail Salem -- were not so lucky. They remain trapped within the narrow coastal strip where Israel's military campaign has killed more than 43,500 people, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, and created a humanitarian disaster.
The artworks "depict the daily realities of war and the hardship these artists endure, who have been displaced and lost their homes", said Shaqdih. He said the gallery was already familiar with the artists on display before the war broke out on October 7, 2023, when Palestinian militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented attack on southern Israel. That attack resu.