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GAZA WAR IN PHOTOS

In Gaza's displacement camps, another generation of musicians takes up their instruments

On makeshift benches, surrounded by the white tarps of makeshift shelters, children living in the displacement camp in Gaza City's al-Rimal neighborhood are filling the hot air with music, valiantly competing with the sounds of Israeli drones and airstrikes overhead.

AFP's Omar al-Qattaa, an event-photographer-turned-war-photojournalist, has documented scenes of the camp's music teachers passing along their skill to the next generation of musicians while all around them in the Strip, the Israeli army closes in, food dwindles, water dries up, and news of cease-fire negotiations changes every hour.

By L'Orient Today staff, 11 July 2025 15:44

Gathered together over the blanketed earth, these three young guitar players and a singer are among many budding musicians across Gaza, where, according to several reports over the last 21 months of war, teachers have taken up their instruments to bring music into a world of violence. (Credit: Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)

Gathered together over the blanketed earth, these three young guitar players and a singer are among many budding musicians across Gaza, where, according to several reports over the last 21 months of war, teachers have taken up their instruments to bring music into a world of violence. (Credit: Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)

Some of Gaza's music teachers were students at the enclave's music conservatories whose studies were interrupted by the ensuing war. Some of them spoke of how hard it was to find time to practice their art when all around them is chaos, but how every time they did, it brought them some peace. (Credit: Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)

Some of Gaza's music teachers were students at the enclave's music conservatories whose studies were interrupted by the ensuing war. Some of them spoke of how hard it was to find time to practice their art when all around them is chaos, but how every time they did, it brought them some peace. (Credit: Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)

Still, music will always find a way, and so Gaza's musicians put their instruments in their children's hands and are teaching them how to make their own sounds. The relief from war, however brief, is desperately needed. In late May, UNICEF's regional director said that Israel had killed or injured more than 50,000 children in Gaza since October 2023. (Credit: Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)

Still, music will always find a way, and so Gaza's musicians put their instruments in their children's hands and are teaching them how to make their own sounds. The relief from war, however brief, is desperately needed. In late May, UNICEF's regional director said that Israel had killed or injured more than 50,000 children in Gaza since October 2023. (Credit: Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)

"Music releases sadness from ourselves, it makes me feel happier," one young Gazan boy told Al Jazeera last September. With a big smile on his face he says: "The choir was singing and it brightened my day a bit." (Credit: Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)

"Music releases sadness from ourselves, it makes me feel happier," one young Gazan boy told Al Jazeera last September. With a big smile on his face he says: "The choir was singing and it brightened my day a bit." (Credit: Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)

"The children of Gaza have been listening for a whole year now, surrounded by the sounds of shelling, awful sounds, cries and the voices of martyrs," Saleh Jaber, a music teacher told Reuters earlier this month. So they decided to replace the sounds of airstrikes, he explained, with the sounds of music — Palestinian music. (Credit: Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)

"The children of Gaza have been listening for a whole year now, surrounded by the sounds of shelling, awful sounds, cries and the voices of martyrs," Saleh Jaber, a music teacher told Reuters earlier this month. So they decided to replace the sounds of airstrikes, he explained, with the sounds of music — Palestinian music. (Credit: Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)

"Music revives the hope that there is still life, that there is a future," Jaber said. "When I see them singing, I feel they are in another world." (Credit: Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)

"Music revives the hope that there is still life, that there is a future," Jaber said. "When I see them singing, I feel they are in another world." (Credit: Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)

On the same topic
  • Gathered together over the blanketed earth, these three young guitar players and a singer are among many budding musicians across Gaza, where, according to several reports over the last 21 months of war, teachers have taken up their instruments to bring music into a world of violence. (Credit: Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)
    1/6 Gathered together over the blanketed earth, these three young guitar players and a singer are among many budding musicians across Gaza, where, according to several reports over the last 21 months of war, teachers have taken up their instruments to bring music into a world of violence. (Credit: Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)
  • Some of Gaza's music teachers were students at the enclave's music conservatories whose studies were interrupted by the ensuing war. Some of them spoke of how hard it was to find time to practice their art when all around them is chaos, but how every time they did, it brought them some peace. (Credit: Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)
    2/6 Some of Gaza's music teachers were students at the enclave's music conservatories whose studies were interrupted by the ensuing war. Some of them spoke of how hard it was to find time to practice their art when all around them is chaos, but how every time they did, it brought them some peace. (Credit: Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)
  • Still, music will always find a way, and so Gaza's musicians put their instruments in their children's hands and are teaching them how to make their own sounds. The relief from war, however brief, is desperately needed. In late May, UNICEF's regional director said that Israel had killed or injured more than 50,000 children in Gaza since October 2023. (Credit: Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)
    3/6 Still, music will always find a way, and so Gaza's musicians put their instruments in their children's hands and are teaching them how to make their own sounds. The relief from war, however brief, is desperately needed. In late May, UNICEF's regional director said that Israel had killed or injured more than 50,000 children in Gaza since October 2023. (Credit: Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)
  • "Music releases sadness from ourselves, it makes me feel happier," one young Gazan boy told Al Jazeera last September. With a big smile on his face he says: "The choir was singing and it brightened my day a bit." (Credit: Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)
    4/6 "Music releases sadness from ourselves, it makes me feel happier," one young Gazan boy told Al Jazeera last September. With a big smile on his face he says: "The choir was singing and it brightened my day a bit." (Credit: Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)
  • "The children of Gaza have been listening for a whole year now, surrounded by the sounds of shelling, awful sounds, cries and the voices of martyrs," Saleh Jaber, a music teacher told Reuters earlier this month. So they decided to replace the sounds of airstrikes, he explained, with the sounds of music — Palestinian music. (Credit: Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)
    5/6 "The children of Gaza have been listening for a whole year now, surrounded by the sounds of shelling, awful sounds, cries and the voices of martyrs," Saleh Jaber, a music teacher told Reuters earlier this month. So they decided to replace the sounds of airstrikes, he explained, with the sounds of music — Palestinian music. (Credit: Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)
  • "Music revives the hope that there is still life, that there is a future," Jaber said. "When I see them singing, I feel they are in another world." (Credit: Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)
    6/6 "Music revives the hope that there is still life, that there is a future," Jaber said. "When I see them singing, I feel they are in another world." (Credit: Omar al-Qattaa/AFP)