By Iqbaal Abdi
London, (The Muslim News): On Wednesday September 24, London-based P21 Gallery launched the ‘Against Erasure’ Photographs from Gaza exhibition. The display showcased the work of 10 photographers in Gaza who captured the horrific realities for Palestinians under this genocide.
Labelled the ‘livestreamed genocide’, atrocities occurring in Gaza have become the most documented war crimes in human history. The carpet bombing and targeting of key infrastructure in Gaza where schools, universities and hospitals have been levelled by the Israeli Defence Force have been photographed for the world to see. Gruesome images of the bodies of babies and children have haunted our screens for the last 2 years. A population forced to live under a man-made famine – with pictures of starving children, women and the elderly being posted across all social media platforms- captured the attention of millions.
Israel denies it has committed any war crimes. Launching a propaganda machine, the Netanyahu regime has attempted to reframe the genocide its committing: first through its narrative that it is an equal war, second through its complete dehumanisation of the Palestinian people and lastly by its denial of the existence of the Palestinian people.
With the Gaza health ministry estimating the death toll surpassing 65,000, the Israeli government fails to provide figures of the civilian casualty whilst asserting they have a 1:2 ratio of Hamas to civilian deaths. By loosely defining who Hamas are and who they are affiliated with, Israel has been able to manipulate the distinction between combatant and civilian. In addition, the language of dehumanisation of the Palestinian people has been reiterated by the Israeli government. Israeli ministers such as Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich have vocalised their plan to drive Palestinians out of Gaza and the West Bank, affirming support for Israeli settler terrorism. The walls of the Knesset echo that there is no genocide, no Palestinian homeland and no moral obligation towards Palestinians.
Photojournalists of Gaza are using the power of the camera to discredit Israel on all fronts. The ‘Against Erasure’ exhibition opposes the narrative that ‘history is written by the victors’ – that the popular narrative will be one that favours the empire. Israel cannot whitewash its crimes and use Hamas as a scapegoat for its own atrocities. The agonising pain captured by Abdulrahman Zagout photo’s in ‘When Food and Water Become Weapons’ which show children with empty pots waiting desperately for food at a charitable kitchen, is a documentation of Israel’s war crime.
In addition, Belal Khaled’s ‘Tales narrated by hands’ shows the impact of the genocide on different demographics in Gaza. A moving image of a father, Abdullah Al-Ghaf, holding the leg of his martyred son, Firas Al-Ghaf, in Khan Yunis as well as a photograph of the hand of a young girl killed by an Israeli bomb lying on cold concrete, are documentations of Israel’s indiscriminate bombing of Gaza.
Asking Belal how he copes with the burden of capturing photographs under an emotionally distressing moment, he replied, “Being a photographer in Gaza is hard. But because Palestinians have seen so much war and destruction, we have learnt to cope with our emotions. If we fall and succumb to our emotions, we [photojournalists] will lose the moment to show what is happening to us and create change.”
Belal added, “Journalists in Gaza are strong enough to photograph during the war, but afterwards, when given the opportunity to reflect, that is when we experience the pain.”
The responsibilities of shedding light on the reality for Palestinians have fallen on the shoulders of photographers from Gaza. Israel has barred international journalists from entering the strip since the beginning of the onslaught. UNRWA reported that this ban was “unprecedented in any other conflict in modern history”, demanding the ban be lifted.
In an attempt to further suppress reporting on Gaza, the IDF has targeted Palestinian journalists, unlawfully killing over 270. Khaled said that “We [Palestinian Journalists] are being killed by our colleagues. The silence of Western media on these atrocities aids the occupation. Silence is complicity.” Nonetheless, Palestinian journalists have continued to work under the harshest circumstances.
Photo: Nine-year-old Fadi in Rafah. Photographer: Ali Jadallah
The power of the photographer in Gaza extends globally. Using the camera as a medium, it enables their photos to transcend spatial and temporal limits. It undermines the innocence of the viewer from all corners of the world. The morally abhorrent inaction of the Israeli citizen who idly watches their government commit war crimes now spreads with the dissemination of each and every photograph of Gaza. Israel’s crime now becomes the world’s crime.
Curator of the P21 gallery, Yahya Zaloom, explained the significance of photographs, stating art photographs, although not necessarily impartial, have a sense of reality. “They cannot be manipulated in the same way a painting can and thus bear witness the lives of Palestinians under the genocide,” he said.
Photo: ‘Hands fighting for Survival’. Photographer: Belal Khaled
Yahya hopes this exhibition will serve in humanising Palestinians; it will stop the wider public from viewing them under a ‘reductive gaze of their suffering’. Yahya clarifies photojournalism differs from other forms of media through its focus on specific people, not the general. “It aims to tell a story of each person, humanising the 65,000 lives lost from empty figures to real people who had dreams, aspirations and a will to live.”
The exhibition, which opened on September 24, 2025, will remain on view until October 10, 2025, at the P21 Gallery, 21–27 Chalton Street, London NW1 1JD, United Kingdom
The exhibition, which opened on September 24, 2025, will remain on display until October 10, 2025 at the P21 Gallery , 21–27 Chalton Street, London NW1 1JD, United Kingdom.
Iqbaal Abdi, Graduate in Politics & International Relations
Feature photo: ‘When food and water become weapons’. Photographer: Abdulrahman Zagout
