The Palestinian artist murdered in the Gaza Strip

Visual artist Heba Zagout died along with her two children in an air raid. The Palestinian is one of the thousands of victims left by the war between Israel and Hamas.

The war between the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, and Israel, unleashed on October 7, has left more than 4,000 fatalities on both sides of the conflict. Among the victims is the Palestinian visual artist Heba Zagout, who died along with her children on October 13. The woman lost her life in the Gaza Strip during an airstrike, according to her sister and her local media.

“My sister, the beloved of my heart and soul, who was martyred today with her children in the aggression against Gaza. Your prayers for mercy and forgiveness for her,” wrote the artist's sister Maysaa Ghazi, through her Facebook account.

Who was Heba Zagout?
Zagout became interested in art at an early age. The artist studied Fine Arts at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza, according to Hyperallergic. “She gained a large following on social media for her vibrant paintings of Palestinian landscapes and people, especially her depictions of scenes from Gaza and Jerusalem,” the portal wrote.
She was the mother of two children, who also died in the airstrike, and worked at a public school. The Palestinian woman, who was also studying graphic design at the Gaza Training School, posted a video weeks before she was murdered. In it she shows her art and tells a little about her career.

“I tried to express the negative feelings, emotions and tensions that occur in Gaza (...) I consider art a message that I deliver to the outside world through my expression of the Palestinian cause and Palestinian identity,” the artist explained in the video.