Heba Zagout

October 2023

The first artist martyr of the genocide came less than a week into the genocide. Heba Zagout was martyred by an IOF airstrike on her home – alongside two of her children, Adam and Mahmoud – on October 13, 2023. Her husband and two other children survived. She is also survived by her sister, Maysaa.

Her family had initially been from the village of Isdud, forcibly expelled during the 1948 Nakba, and Heba was born in Al-Bureij refugee camp. From a young age, she had a love for painting.

Zagout was born in 1984 in Bureij refugee camp, in the middle of the Gaza Strip near Maghazi and Nuseirat refugee camps. She grew up listening to her family and other elders tell stories about Palestine before the Nakba. According to her sister, Heba developed a love of painting from a young age.

She graduated from Gaza Training College in 2003 with a degree in Graphic Design and from Al-Aqsa University with a Bachelor’s degree of Fine Arts. After finishing school, Heba went on to be an art teacher and work with UNRWA. Selling her artwork provided for her family of six.

Heba made many paintings, often capturing Palestinian women and villages – as well as one of her favorites, the Dome of the Rock at Al Aqsa Mosque. Her work was featured in many exhibitions, including a 2021 solo show My Children in Quarantine looking at life during the Covid-19 pandemic. In the exhibition, she showed images of Palestinians in masks, including herself, in their homes and in Al Quds / Jerusalem.

Zagout was also a frequent visitor at art openings and more for the Dar Kalima Art Centre in Gaza. The founder, a Bethlehem-based Palestinian Lutheran priest named Mitri Raheb, said “that beyond helping expose young Gazan artists to the outside world and assisting them in earning their livelihoods by selling their work abroad, the college’s goal is to provide a venue for ‘art as therapy’ and as a way to express a dynamic Gazan identity that transcends politics. Making art is a way for Gazans to represent their own reality and tell their own stories.”

As an educator and artist, Zagout dedicated her life to documenting Palestinian heritage and history as it faced endless erasure and threat under Israeli occupation. She stayed committed to art until her last moments, both for her and her students.

Laura Albast, a Palestinian-American journalist, spoke to Zagout just two days before she was martyred. She described Zagout’s art as very connected to her experience as Palestinian woman living in Gaza and a great loss. "They didn't just bomb her home, her children, but they erased the traces of her creativity,” said Albast. "This is a woman who has brought so much joy to the homes of so many people who have bought her art, who have displayed her art.”

Two weeks before the "isareli" airstrike, Zagout posted a video on YouTube about her work at the end of September 2023. In it, Heba said: “I consider art a message that I deliver to the outside world through my expression of the Palestinian cause and Palestinian identity.”

Mohammed Sami Qariqa

October 2023

As a 23-year-old artist and journalist, Mohammed Sami Qariqa was one of the martyrs in the first hospital attack of the genocide – when an IOF airstrike hit Al-Ahil Baptist Hospital, where hundreds of Palestinians had taken shelter under displacement. He had been there helping kids to reieve stress by drawing and signing under bombardment.

Mohammed worked as part of the art studio for Tamer Institute for Community Education, described as the soul of the effort as the one who came to open it every day, put paintings up, prepare materials, and get everything ready before younger participants arrived.

One day, he had hoped, the plan was to open his own art gallery in Gaza.

As far as his own work, his work blended painting, animation, and technology.

The Institute for Palestine Studies writes:

“Qariqa graduated from Al-Azhar University in Gaza and focused on integrating technology with the arts. He launched the ‘Rubik Code’ project, which presents aspects of the Palestinian cause, such as Judaization, the killing of unarmed civilians, arrests, and the siege, through scannable barcodes. The project relies on different techniques, with its core idea being linking the barcode to a Rubik's Cube, alongside sketches and paintings that convey real scenes from Palestinian reality that the occupation seeks to erase and falsify.

The late artist participated in a short documentary film titled The Airport, which captures an unfulfilled dream: the return of Gaza's international airport, which the Occupation forces destroyed in 2001 (only three years after its opening). ‘Here is Gaza Airport,’ the Palestinian artist writes with his brush on one of the ruined walls, as he speaks about his collogues whom the place inspired with different visions of a stolen homeland, and what the airport means to each of them.

He focused much of his artistic attention on comics and sought to establish a Palestinian comics collective that would shed light on scenes from everyday life. From this came the idea of Transit magazine, which he helped found in 2022 with a group of artists and enthusiasts in this field, including: Khaled Jarada, Hala Al-‘Absi, Hiba Shahtout, Alaa Al-Ja‘bari, Jihad Jarbo‘, Tamer Kaheel, Fatima Al-Houbi, Bayan Abu Nahla, and others.

Fathi Ghaben

February 2024

There are many ways that the IOF imposed a genocide on the Palestinian people. Airstrikes and starvation may be two of the most used techniques, but another big one was the lack of medical supplies. The hospital infrastructure in Gaza, which was limited to begin with, got completely decimated since some of the initial attacks on Al Alhi Baptist Hospital and Al Shifa Hospital. Not only that, many people who have tried to evacuate for medical treatment were not able to do so.

This was the case with Fathi Ghaben, one of the most important artists in Palestinian history. He was having difficulties with his chest and lungs, making it difficult to breathe. His family had been displaced, with their home and his studio destroyed by airstrikes during the genocide.

Due to the shortage of medicines and oxygen, Fathi sought treatment in Egypt but needed permission from his "israeli" oppressors. He was getting some treatment at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah, waiting to be able to leave, but the IOF never let him travel. As a result, he succumbed to his health difficulties on February 25, 2024.

The Palestinian Ministry of Culture said his martyrdom was a great loss to Palestinian art as someone who had embodied all aspects of Palestinian life in his work: camps, the life of a refugee, and the traditions of the country that he immortalized in his work.

Fathi was born in 1947, the year of the UN Partition Plan, setting the tone for the rest of his life. He was born in the village of Harbiya, only to be displaced during the Nakba in 1948 and his mother carried him to the nearby Gaza strip. He grew up in Jabalia refugee camp and spent his life there.

Later, he said, "Life’s harsh conditions cut short my formal education in the sixth grade. That very year, I stepped into labor. Palestinian children are expected to act as men and provide for their families. Amid this, I practiced my hobby—painting... By nineteen, I was married and soon a father to eight."

His path of work was selling newspapers and working in a citrus orchard. Even with this labor and all his kids, Fathi kept up his hobby of painting. He would often create his work for eight hours at a time, alongside his wife and the active play of his children. Eventually, art became his full-time job. He would also go on to become an art teacher later.

This time period was crucial for Palestinian art, as others like Ismail Shammout and Tamam Al-Akhal began to depict scenes of the Nakba and national symbology. However, while some had been exiled, Fathi had was living the post-Nakba reality in the Strip, now filled with a large influx of refugees after hundreds of villages across historic Palestine had been destroyed and depopulated.

In the 1970s, particularly after the 1967 Naksa, artists in Gaza and the West Bank started to get more organized. They worked together, including setting up makeshift exhibitions and forming DIY collectives.

One of his fellow artists was Sliman Mansour, who is still living today. “He learned art by doing, and in the seventies and eighties of the last century, he became one of the most essential artists in Gaza through his expression in his paintings of nostalgia for Palestine before the Nakba and his drawings about identity and liberation" wrote Sliman after Fathi's martyrdom.

The work of artists at this time, often reproduced and distributed through posters, gained attention during as the 1970s went on and "israel" deemed this as a security threat. They started to close exhibitions, confiscate art, and threaten artists. This included then telling them to not paint the colors of the Palestinian flag – green, red, white, and black – under any circumstances. Even if it was just a watermelon. The flag itself had already been banned since 1967, but the colors alone came into a ban in 1980 (and would stay until the Oslo Accords in the '90s).

When the IOF martyred the nephew of Fathi in the early 1980s, he made the decision to paint the boy wrapped up in the Palestinian flag. The artwork went on display at Ghaben’s exhibit in 1984, where the show was abruptly closed. The painting of his nephew, along with six other works, were permanently confiscated. The "israeli" military court found him guilty of breaking their color ban law and claimed his painting created incitement.

Fathi was imprisoned for several months as a result. After getting released, he is said to have painted the image of a mass demonstration and two arms rising into the air, along with a broken chain, and a horse with a subtle Palestine flag on its neck. Overall, he would be jailed three times during his life.

“I never created artwork to make PR for myself. I consider myself a bright light, a burning candle, regarding the struggle of the Palestinian people. I yearn to express myself through my art and I want the viewer to know that my paintings reflect my soul, a mental, social and deep national ocean of passion and compassion. My paintings are not filled with smiles; they are not loud, flashy or without a deep thought. I draw the national Palestinian issues and the reality of the Palestinian struggle…

Being a sensitive artist soul, I believe the colors appropriate for our life in Jabalia and the individual perception of them are the warm, dark and earthly colors – with a grasp of hope, maybe half of that dark brown, dark blue, but with orange, yellow and a mixture of white and yellow, these light colors reflect glimpses of hope in this hell on earth.”

After a lifetime of work, his legacy in Palestinian art is undeniable.

Dina Zaurub

April 2025

While artists around the world in solidarity have made art as tributes to the martyrs of Gaza, those who lived there also took on the task. The person who became most known for this was Dina Khaled Zaurub, a 22-year-old artist in the Gaza strip.

Dina had been a recognized artist for at least a decade. In 2015, she won an award for the best drawing on children’s rights in armed conflict, given out by Al Mezan Center for Human Rights (which is based in Jabalia). She was also later recognized by UNRWA and the Ministry of Education for her work.

In her pieces, she focused on people. Over the genocide, Dina made an array of portraits of martyrs, honoring those whose lives were taken. These drawings were seemingly done mostly in black and white, using simple materials such as charcoal, likely for necessity from what was available.

One of those martyrs was her friend and journalist Ahmad Abu Al-Roos, who was martyred hours before the January 2025 temporary ceasefire. Dina shared online about his loss, noting:

الله يرحمك ي أحمد كنت خير صديق يشهد الله كنت دائمآ تحكيلي هشوفك احلى رسامه طالعه من غزة هيك رحت ي أحمد قبل ما أحقق حلمي والله بدري ي صديق"

May God have mercy on you, Ahmed. You were the best friend. God is my witness. You always used to tell me,'“I will see you, the best artist from Gaza.' That’s how you left, Ahmed, before I achieved my dream. By God, it was too early, my friend."

Dina and her family were originally from Rafah and were displaced multiple times, eventually living in Khan Yunis in a tent. At one point during the genocide, she wrote:

بنحاول نرقع ونعمل شبه بيوتنا عشان ما نحس إنا متغربين عن بيوتنا وحاراتنا وناسنا وأهلنا وحبايبنا والله إشتقت وحنيتت لريحه البيت 💔"

We try to stay calm and work like our homes so that we do not feel that we are alienated from our homes, streets, people, family and loved ones. I swear I miss and miss the smell of the house 💔"

Dina nonetheless continued to make her work, as well as help with some aid initiatives, especially with young kids.

On International Children's Day, on April 5, 2025, she hosted an event at Al Wafaa Orphanage Village. A week later, on Sunday April 12, 2025, she and her family were all targeted and martyred by an IOF airstrike.

In response to the news about her martyrdom, many on social media asked “Now that she’s gone, who will draw Dina Zaurub?”

In her last Facebook post, from the day before her martyrdom, Dina posted photos of her sitting serenely at a seaside cafe. The caption that accompanied it simply said:

كلها حنيه🫂🩵🦋"

It’s all about tenderness.”

Fatma Hassouna

April 2025

"I really believe that pictures can be a weapon," said photographer and martyr Fatma Hassouna. "My camera is as powerful as a gun."

Fatma – whose nickname was Fatoom – was a 25-year-old Gaza-based artist, most known for her photography in the past year. She took on the responsibility of visual journalism in documenting northern Gaza under genocide. She also wrote poetry and sang music.

She had graduated from the University College of Applied Sciences in 2022. The school is in Gaza City, where Fatma was born and raised. A little over a year later, her life would change with everyone else. In early 2024, several of her family members were martyred.

In the past year, she frequently shared photos online that documented the harsh realities. It was a firmly held belief that her Canon DSLR camera was an effective tool to showcase what was happening to her and those around her.

Over the years, Fatma photographed for Untold Palestine, the Tamer Foundation for Community Education, and Plan International. She was also a member of the editorial team for the literary group Yara’at Al Adabi.

In early January 2025, she had announced her engagement on Facebook. She was excitedly preparing for her wedding, despite the circumstances.

Iranian-French film director Sepideh Farsi had been remotely working with Fatma, featuring her in a new documentary called “Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk.” On Tuesday, April 15, it was announced that it would be heading to Cannes Film Festival for its premiere in May.

The next day after the Cannes announcement, on April 16, the IOF hit the Hassouna home in Gaza City with a targeted airstrike. Fatma was martyred, along with 10 members of her family. Her parents, who survived but were injured in the same attack, lost all six of their children. One of Fatma’s sisters was pregnant.

Knowing that she would be potentially targeted like fellow artists and journalists who documented the reality, Fatma had said, “If I die, I want a resounding death. I don’t want to be just breaking news, or a number in a group. I want a death that the world will hear, an impact that will remain through time, and immortal images that cannot be buried by time or place.”

The documentary had its world premiere in the ACID program at the Cannes Film Festival a month later, on May 15, where Sepideh Farsi held up a photo of Fatma at the screening. There was also an event displaying her photos taken in Gaza, printed and displayed for Cannes attendees to view.

As the film continues to be shown around the world for months and years to come, her death will only become louder. Her photos leave behind a legacy to show she is not just a number.

Frans Al-Salmi
Ismail Abu Hatab

June 2025

"I feel that drawing and visual arts always conveys the message more clearly to people," said the martyr Frans Al-Salmi, a 36-year-old visual artist who had graduated with a fine arts degree from Al Aqsa University and went on to work across painting, murals, sculpture and digital art.

On Monday, June 30, 2025, an "israeli" airstrike targeted Al Baqa Cafe, which was a beachfront location in Gaza City, in the central area of the Strip.

Al Baqa was one of the few spaces left for Palestinians to come together in community. Not only was it in a beautiful location overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, but it still had relatively strong internet connection. This made it a go-to destination for journalists, such as Bayan Abu Sultan who was injured in the strike.

However, over 30 people there did not survive. On that fatal day, Frans was there along with Ismail Abu Hatab, a friend and fellow artist. They were both martyred. Ismail was a 32-year-old filmmaker, photographer, and journalist who had started his own media production company cLight in 2018.

Both of them had already faced difficulties during the genocide, as had everyone in Gaza. In November 2023, Ismail was injured in an airstrike while filming a documentary on the Palestinian struggle and had to recover for a year. As the terror unfolded around him, he was limited in his mobility. For Frans, her brother also suffered an injury from shrapnel and her father passed in December 2023 from lack of medical treatment. They were both displaced.

When Ismail was healthy enough again, he began to take photos and videos. But his mission could not be contained to just that. He felt it was imperative for independent voices in Gaza to speak for themselves. He started ByPa, short for By Palestine, as a platform to share these stories. Frans hadn't been sharing art publicly at all since the genocide began, and seemingly not even making any in private. However, Ismail brought her into the fold of By Pa and had her make a handful of artworks in Spring 2025 before they were martyred.

In April, when Frans posted on her Instagram for the first time in two years, she shared a flyer she drew for a remote U.S. art exhibition of Ismail's work. In the caption she wrote, "When you start painting again during the brutal genocide so a part of you can come back to life... this was my friend’s idea (Ismail) to revive the spirit of life within me, allowing the colors to return and tell fragments of his photos."

Ismail had encouraged her to start making art again, and it seemed to have revitalized her creative spirit. "We still love life and our passions, despite all the hardships," Frans wrote at the end of the post.

The event the flyer was for, organized through By Pa, was called Between The Sky and Sea. Ismail arranged for the exhibit to feature real sand from Gaza, transported to Gaza, inside a torn up aid tent. The speakers blared sounds of recorded street sounds of Palestinians talking, the sounds of the shore, and more. But the center of it was Ismail's photos and video clips. From over 12,000 miles away, he had devised this innovative and sensory art experience for people in California to take in.

About a month before their martyrdom, Frans had made an illustration of Ismail that utilized orange and brown tones with thick brush lines to create a portrait of him. He made it his profile picture on Instagram.

Frans' last painting, showing three martyred women with splatters of red paint for their blood, is a visually-arresting piece. But it became a haunting reflection when the images of Frans after the attack were eerily similar. The artwork and her picture were placed side-by-side in an image that spread on social media.

Tributes came in for after for both, including from fellow artists.

Gaza-based photographer Suhail Nassar shared a set of photos and videos with Ismail, writing that he had seen him just two days before, not knowing it would be the last time shaking his hand. After one picture of him, Suhail wrote, "beneath the sky you once filmed. Your name is now the light, we follow in the dark." Another image in the set, a portrait of Suhail that Ismail had taken, he wrote, "There, at the seaport we went back to together, you took my favorite photo of me, as if capturing a farewell I didn't yet know."

Hala Sabbah, Co-Founder of the grassroots Gaza aid initiative The Sameer Project, was one of the people who posted a tribute. She wrote, "Mutual aid teams are connected and Frans did water distributions for the Sameer Project during our partnership with Reviving Gaza. This genocide is taking the best of us, rest in power Frans 💔"

Rafiq Al-Salmi, her brother and one of Frans' ten siblings, told The Art Newspaper: "I want the world to know that my sister loved art and aspired to become a shining name in it.”

Fadi Almeghari

May 2026

Fadi Almeghari was a 25-year-old photographer who became known during the genocide for his photographs and caring of the children around him. He saw the harsh realities they leaved, and the way they still managed to find joy. He felt they were all symbolically his own kids.

Gaza before the genocide was already a prison to Fadi, as far as the difficult life and limitations it imposed on him. He tried to find refuge in another country, but found himself back in the Strip. Eventually, he came to terms with this difficult reality of occupation. His frustration was channeled into his art and wanting to make an impact through his work.

In addition to being a photographer, he was also a writer. He published many clear-eyed statements during the years of displacement, bombing, and starvation. His words appealed to the world to not leave Gaza alone and to remark on the Palestinian spirit.

On May 26, 2026, an lOF-backed traitor militia attempted to enter Al-Maghazi refugee camp near the so-called “yellow line” in Central Gaza. They began raiding homes and were confronted by local young men. Fire was being exchanged and the lOF was backing the collaborators from above with drones.

His family was in need of safety and Fadi tried to help them to flee through a narrow passage beside where they were living. It was the only way they could escape. But as he stood at the door to help people leave, the IOF assassinated him by drone strike.

This was during the “ceasefire” period in place since October 2025, but Fadi was one of around 1000 martyrs killed by the IOF – and its backers, the US and Western world – in those eight months.

Fadi leaves behind an Instagram archive with photos and writings to carry on his legacy and not let the dreams of his impact end with his martyrdom.