On Friday, October 13, 2023, prominent Palestinian visual artist Heba Zaqout (39 years old) was killed, with two of her sons Adam and Mahmoud, in an alleged Israeli strike on the house she was staying in, in a residential area of the Gaza Strip.
Her last message to her friend @danielmkovalik was “We are sitting with the children. There is a bombing. I feel afraid,” alongside images, taken from a window, of plumes of smoke and dust in the near distance and another image of two children crouched by a wall in the dark. Her husband and two other sons, Faisal and Baraa, survived.
One source, Mohammed Lamaa, reported in a post on Facebook that Heba was killed alongside her five sons, however, no other sources corroborated this claim.
Family members and friends of Heba Zaqout made heartfelt tributes and described their grief.
Many posted images of her bright acrylic paintings, some that depicted a woman in a traditional Palestinian dress and others depicting the city of Jerusalem.
Heba Zaqout was born in Gaza City on February 18, 1984. An article in GQ Middle East after her death explained how she painted Gaza as a harmonious and peaceful city with dozens of shrines, temples and churches beautifully coexisting. Her artwork also symbolised peace, return to home and ancient culture. She used social media to showcase her work where she built her following. GQ Middle East described her as a “breadwinner” and said that she “held a profoundly resilient spirit that often manifested in her artwork through symbols of peace and coexistence”.
She posted a YouTube video on September 28, 2023, where she said “We all know that there are political tensions and events that are not simple in Gaza. Through drawing, I try to reflect all negative emotions and empty all negative emotions. I consider art a message that I deliver to the outside world through my expression of the Palestinian cause and identity.” Her sister said that she had hoped an exhibition would be held of her work outside of Gaza.
Days before her death she wrote on her Facebook page “Oh God, we entrust you with hearts grieving with separation. Oh God, heal the brokenness of our hearts and make us patient with your judgement and destiny. O Lord, be with us and strengthen us increase our patience and reward us for our patience. O God, bind our hearts, for they cannot be strong or supported. Except for you.”
Heba’s name has been matched with the Palestinian Ministry of Health list of nearly 7000 victims’ names and ID numbers released on October 26th.
Where the sources identified the belligerent, sources attributed the strikes to Israeli forces.
The local time of the incident is unknown. The exact location of the incident is also unknown, where sources identified a location, sources only referred to “the Gaza Strip”.