Palestinian sculptors create art on Gaza beach sand to escape Israel’s war

The Israeli military has destroyed everything that is encircling Gaza’s shoreline, but the coast offers some fleeting solace from the besieged Palestinian enclave’s ongoing devastation.

Before the genocidal war, where the local artists had built sand sculptures on the beach to gather residents from the shoreline, which were once a magnet for large crowds.

With utterly limited resources, they have transformed the beach into an open space for expression that also offers displaced Palestinian survivors a chance to unwind after more than two years of fighting.

Despite last month’s ceasefire with Hamas, Yazid Abu Jarad and his team used tape measures to carve letters in the sand and draw crowds, including children who have been left infected by the relentless Israeli attacks, which have continued despite the United States’ and mediators’ mediations.

“We see so many people gathered around us when we create art on the beach in Gaza. You can see it on the faces of young children and the elderly as well. He told Ibrahim al-Khalili on Al Jazeera that people “drift into a different world for a moment.”

They notice the bombings, destruction, and drone buzzing in the artwork, which is completely different from what they’ve been seeing since the war started. Even a small picture can influence how people feel in our drawings.

The artists use anything they can find as tools, including a broken tile, a stick pulled from the shore, and a small brush, which are all left over from the ongoing destruction of Gaza.

Their work is only temporary, just like the coastline itself.

Even though the tides cause the work to disappear by evening, another artist, Majd Ayada, told Al Jazeera, that he and others are daily drawing on the shore from morning until night.

“We return the following day and begin again.” We adore sculpting and drawing on the soil of Gaza, he said.

We never give up even after two years of fighting, they say.

After being repeatedly displaced by Israel, other Palestinian families are forced to use the little-used tents and flimsy plastic coverings as meager protection against the winter cold.

The young people’s ability to create images and sculptures of Gaza, according to Fathi Abu Maoud, makes his family happy because it strengthens their bond to the place even more.

This is our home, according to the statement, “We were born here, our children were born here.” He claimed that Gaza is where we are rooted.