Sixteen-year-old Yara Youssef Abu Kweik uses painting to process trauma from more than two years of conflict in Gaza, depicting water shortages, repeated displacement and makeshift shelters. With professional mental-health support limited, many children in Gaza are turning to creative outlets to cope. Aid groups and clinicians warn that a very high proportion of children now show signs of severe psychological and physical stress. Abu Kweik hopes her art will amplify a simple plea: "Enough is enough. We want to live."
Gaza Teen Turns War Trauma into Powerful Paintings — “Enough Is Enough”
Sixteen-year-old Yara Youssef Abu Kweik uses painting to process trauma from more than two years of conflict in Gaza, depicting water shortages, repeated displacement and makeshift shelters. With professional mental-health support limited, many children in Gaza are turning to creative outlets to cope. Aid groups and clinicians warn that a very high proportion of children now show signs of severe psychological and physical stress. Abu Kweik hopes her art will amplify a simple plea: "Enough is enough. We want to live."
19:44, 05.11.2025Conflict
Gaza teenager channels trauma into art
Sixteen-year-old Yara Youssef Abu Kweik is using drawing and painting to process the emotional wounds left by more than two years of devastating conflict in Gaza. Her work depicts water shortages, repeated displacement, makeshift shelters and the daily hardships that have become part of life for many children in the territory.
"I used to draw ordinary, colourful things," Abu Kweik told reporters. "As the war continued, I felt I needed to show the world how we are living." Her paintings include images of children struggling to scoop handfuls of water, families sleeping on roadsides exposed to shelling, and people sheltering in tents or with no shelter at all.
"I represent all the Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip — on their behalf, I say: Enough is enough. We want to live." — Yara Youssef Abu Kweik
For Abu Kweik, art is both a release and a trigger: creating helps her "vent" and make sense of her experience, but some scenes also bring back traumatic flashbacks. Psychologists report widespread mental-health impacts among Gaza's youth, with many children showing signs of severe trauma such as headaches, stomach pain, hair loss, skin conditions and weakened immunity.
These problems predate the most recent escalation. A 2022 report by Save the Children found that four in five children in Gaza were living with depression, grief and fear, and that more than half had struggled with suicidal thoughts. According to UNICEF, tens of thousands of children have been killed or injured since the October 7, 2023 escalation; broader casualty figures and humanitarian impacts have been reported by a range of agencies.
A United States-brokered ceasefire that took effect on October 10 provided limited respite. Humanitarian groups and Gaza's Ministry of Health have reported continued strikes, severe restrictions on the flow of food, medicine and shelter supplies, and ongoing civilian casualties since the ceasefire began.
Despite these hardships, Abu Kweik remains committed to improving her technique and ensuring her paintings reach audiences beyond Gaza. Her work is a personal record and a public plea for recognition of the suffering of the territory’s children.
Sources
Reporting and figures in this article are drawn from interviews with the artist, local health authorities and international agencies including Save the Children and UNICEF.