Gaza: Dina Khaled Zaurub, a 22-year-old Gazan artist renowned for her detailed portraits memorializing victims of Israeli military actions, was reportedly killed on April 12 in an Israeli airstrike on a displaced persons camp west of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, according to Quds News Network.
Zaurub had taken shelter at the camp with her family when the tent they were in was struck. She had gained recognition across Gaza and beyond for her charcoal and graphite drawings that depicted friends and fellow Palestinians who had lost their lives during the ongoing conflict.I
n 2015, she received the Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights Award for a drawing focused on children’s rights during armed conflict.
She was also acknowledged by the Palestinian Ministry of Education and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) for her artistic contributions.Tributes to Zaurub poured in on social media after news of her death broke.
One follower from Tunisia wrote, “The artist Dina Zaurub who painted the martyrs in their honour and memory joined them today.” The Palestinian Ministry of Culture described her death as a loss of “a gifted young woman whose art kept memory alive in a time of relentless erasure.”
Zaurub’s work frequently memorialized people she personally knew, including journalist Ahmad Abu Al-Roos, who was killed in January by Israeli forces. In a January 15 Facebook post, Zaurub shared a photo of her handing him a portrait she had drawn. “May God have mercy on you Ahmed… You always told me that I will see you, the best painter from Gaza.So you left before I realized my dream,” she wrote.
Her Facebook page has since become a virtual memorial, displaying her portraits, photos, and posts about her volunteer work with orphans. Her final post, made hours before her death, shows her at a seaside café, captioned simply: “it’s all about tenderness.”Malak Mattar, a fellow Gazan artist, said, “It’s painful to see artists from Gaza mostly being recognised after their murder.
Artists here deserve justice, protection, and recognition in their lifetime.”
According to Gaza’s health ministry, over 50,933 people have been killed since Israel began its military campaign in response to Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, which killed around 1,200 Israelis. The conflict resumed on March 18 following a temporary ceasefire.
