Young Palestinian artists in Bureij, in central Gaza, staged an impromptu outdoor exhibit on Tuesday, using paintings to convey what they said they have endured during the war and during a ceasefire that has remained fragile. The exhibit opened to the weather and passers-by on a sunny day, with children playing as admirers looked on and took photos, according to video and accounts from the area.
The paintings ranged from intimate symbols to scenes of destruction, including one depicting a dove and another marked by a bullet hole. An organizer said the work was created through months of sustained activity, rather than in a single day of improvisation—an approach that artists and residents said helped them put feelings into a visible record even as displacement continued.
Ghanem Al-Din, who organized the exhibit of dozens of paintings, said the artists “painted their feelings, their ambitions, their hopes, their visions, over four months during a continuous workshop in my studio.” He presented the collection as a way to show the outside world what has happened during the war and amid the temporary lull.
For Obay Al-Qarshali, 21, the exhibit also reflected what he described as repeated flight. He said he fled his home in Gaza City in late 2023 after the war began, prompted by the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, and that he left more than 30 of his paintings behind. Al-Qarshali said his remaining work, including the painting displayed, showed broken glass, cars topped with mattresses and other belongings, and the debris of buildings.
Al-Qarshali told the audience that he had changed locations at least seven times in the war, describing the movement and the carrying of belongings as part of what shaped his art. He said: “Because of how much we were displaced and suffered in moving and carrying our belongings, the tents, the crowds, and so much more, I wanted to express something that deeply troubled me: that we left our homes and our safe places, forced to flee, scatter, and change our location. This piece expresses so much.”
While artists focused on the meaning of their work, other reporting described the continuing operational reality on the ground even as fighting has eased in some areas. Gaza’s Health Ministry, part of the Hamas-led government, said Israeli forces have continued near-daily strikes and fire around military-held zones, killing over 800 Palestinians, and it said its casualty records are generally reliable in the view of U.N. agencies and independent experts.
The account described a Tuesday airstrike in Gaza City that hit a car, killing four men, according to Shifa Hospital, and said the strike occurred away from the “Yellow Line” that separates Israeli-controlled areas from the rest of Gaza. Israel’s military said it struck a “terrorist” in the location, without providing details, according to the reporting.
The same report said a 9-year-old boy was killed by Israeli fire while gathering firewood in Khan Younis, about 400 meters west of the Yellow Line, according to Nasser Hospital, and said Israel’s military did not immediately comment. A separate video shown by the Associated Press depicted siblings crying over the boy at a morgue.
At the U.N. Security Council, Tony Blair, a key member of the U.S.-created Board of Peace meant to focus on Gaza, told the meeting that “Critical demilitarization talks with Hamas are continuing.” The reporting said the timing of next steps in Gaza’s ceasefire remained unclear, and that demilitarization was a major challenge before any shift toward stabilization and reconstruction could begin in earnest.
A report cited in the same coverage projected that reconstruction in Gaza likely would cost over $70 billion and take a decade, saying Gaza’s economy has contracted by 84%. It also described extensive damage: more than 371,000 housing units destroyed and more than half of Gaza’s hospitals described as non-functional, with nearly all schools destroyed or damaged in the territory of over 2 million people. Doctors Without Borders reported that Israel had destroyed or damaged about 90% of Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure, and Mercy Corps said only 7% of Gaza’s agricultural infrastructure remains functional.