Eltiqa Gallery Destroyed in Gaza
By The Editors
The exterior of the Eltiqa collective’s gallery space on Omar Al-Mukhtar Street in Gaza City after an Israeli bombing on December 4.
The Question of Funding (QoF), a Palestinian art collective that participated in documenta fifteen in 2022, reported on December 20 that the Eltiqa art collective’s gallery space on Omar Al-Mukhtar Street in Gaza City had been destroyed by an Israeli airstrike earlier in the month.
QoF said they had been in contact with Eltiqa members, who had been displaced from the neighborhood and had lost family members during Israel’s military campaign following the October 7 attacks by Hamas militants on southern Israel.
QoF wrote on Instagram that in the wake of the bombing on December 4, local people had entered the wrecked art space and removed paintings and furniture to use the raw material in order to make fires for heat and to make basic food staples such as bread amid a dire food shortage in Gaza. QoF reported: “[Eltiqa members] are sad to know their artworks have been burnt but they also asked what is the meaning of art now? Aren’t peoples’ lives far more important?”
The United Nations reported that the entire 2.3 million population of Gaza is facing crisis levels of hunger and the risk of famine.
Eltiqa had posted images of their destroyed gallery on their Facebook account on December 6.
