This is the latest dispatch from Rizek Abdel Jawad, a photojournalist based in Gaza City who frequently contributes to the NB Media Co-op.
Jana Abu Harbid, a Palestinian artist in her twenties, was displaced from Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip and now lives in a rented house in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood in southwest Gaza City after her home was destroyed during the Israeli war that followed October 7, 2013.
Jana paints on the roof of her house, explaining that the surrounding destruction and the suffering endured by Palestinians — including death, famine, and displacement — serve as the raw material for most of her artwork.
Jana hopes to return to Beit Hanoun, which is located in Israeli-controlled “green zone,” and paint amidst the ruins of her home destroyed by Israeli airstrikes. However, she acknowledges that this remains a distant dream due to the ongoing Israeli occupation of approximately 70 percent of the Gaza Strip. Jana lost her son in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a group of Palestinians in Beit Hanoun in 2018.
This text was originally written in Arabic. The English version was produced using translation software.
Rizek Abdel Jawad is a photojournalist based in Gaza City. To see more of his work, follow him on Instagram and Facebook. He is part of the Connecting Gaza initiative, which helps families in Gaza survive. You can support them by going to www.connectinggaza.org/donate.
