Through Fatma’s Lens: The Role of Photography in Palestinian Resistance

“Maybe my photos will live longer than I do, and that’s what makes me feel at peace… a timeless image that cannot be buried by time or place” 

These words were the hope of the late Fatma Hassona, a Palestinian photojournalist who enlisted herself to capture the daily lives of Palestinians in Gaza and the suffering they have endured as a result of Israel’s genocide. As one can discern from this quote, Hassona wanted to spread the truth with her photos, she wanted the world to witness through her lens, the reality of what genocide looks like for the average Palestinian. She did this primarily through her Instagram, where she published many of her photos alongside a piece of her writing, determined to translate the pain of genocide and promote an end to the violence. She also photographed and contributed to various other news sources, including The Guardian, Mondoweiss, and Untold Palestine. 

Her work and dedication, despite the danger, led to her becoming the protagonist in Sepideh Farsi's independent documentary “Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk” which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last May. Hassona was due to attend the festival, marking her first exit from Palestine since the beginning of the genocide. What was supposed to be a joyous celebration of her commitment to her work and the story of her people turned into a dedication of her life. Fatma Hassona, and her family, were murdered by an Israeli airstrike that hit her home in Northern Gaza on April 15th, 2025. Israel’s military claims the airstrike pursued a Hamas member guilty of attacking Israeli citizens and military personnel. Two things are important to counter this claim: the first being the fact that her home resided in a civilian area, meaning Israel willingly bombed her neighborhood knowing civilians would die. Second, this all too common claim has been wielded by Israel countless times to justify the murder of Palestinians. Her documentation of the humanizing truth posed too great a threat to Israel’s dehumanizing genocidal campaign; leading to her tragic murder and the actualization of her photos outliving her. In the face of genocide, Hassona’s photos stand strong. 

A Failed Ceasefire 

Hassona was a victim of a failed ceasefire deal which began in January of 2025. The deal, organized by Q’atar and highly opposed by right-wing Israeli politicians, went into place on the nineteenth of January, enlisting three phases to be delicately carried out. The first phase allowed Palestinians to return to parts of Northern and Southern Gaza which had been occupied and prohibited to enter. Along with promises in aid increase and medical treatment was the staggered release of hostages and prisoners held by Israel and Hamas. The second step was meant to see Israel's complete withdrawal from Gaza in addition to a return of the remaining living hostages and prisoners from both sides. Culminating in the final phase to see an exchange of deceased hostages and a Gaza reconstruction plan. 

The first phase had a violent start. During a three hour delay in its initiation Israel bombarded the Gaza strip one last time, killing 13 people. Following its launch the ceasefire saw thousands of Palestinians flooding into Northern Gaza, returning to a homeland that had been essentially reduced to rubble. Despite this, Palestinians were ripe with celebration and joy to be able to return, as well as later on in January when prisoners who had been wrongfully incarcerated by Israel returned to their loved ones, as stipulated in the deal. Hassona herself was incredibly optimistic about the ceasefire and was “confident that beautiful things will come.” 

The deal did not make it past the first phase; with a full suspension to the entrance of aid into the Gaza Strip on March 2 and a catastrophic breakdown on March 18th, 2025. Israel unleashed airaids into northern, central and southern regions and shelled the town of Abasan in Khan Younis. This attack was backed by the United States; who had been informed prior by Israel that they were going to violate the ceasefire. In total, around 400 lives were taken. Israel defended their actions as a move to motivate Hamas to release more of the captives being held in Gaza and to prevent the new attack they alleged Hamas was planning. However, this rhetoric was read through by most as an excuse for the reality of Israel’s intentions in the ceasefire the entire time: they were never going to move past the first phase. In fact, when signing the agreement Israel declined to affirm in a written manner that they would not take up violence again following the first phase. Hence, March 18th marks the official reignition of Israel’s genocide; Netanyahu promised such actions were ‘only the beginning’ while Defence minister Israel Katz vowed there would be ‘total devastation’. 

April was an incredibly violent month: the seizure of a large part of the Gaza Strip, a return of violence in areas where Palestinians had just returned, and repeated airstrikes of civilians and bombings of designated humanitarian zones. This was the month Hassona was murdered in a civilian airstrike. Following the attack, director Sepideh Farsi lamented that she had been targeted because of the prominence she had gained from her documentation of the genocide, which had become increasingly followed.  

The Politics of Genocide Denial

In September of 2025, the United Nations (UN) released their official establishment of genocide commited by the State of Israel in the Palestinian enclave. While the ‘finding of genocide’ came far later than it ideally should have, nonetheless, it was a big step for Palestinians and their advocates; with the UN finding Israeli security guilty on four out of five genocidal acts. Most interesting was how the commission established genocidal intent to destroy Gaza and its civilians– through an analysis of Israeli officials' public comments over Palestinians and their own actions. One example of such being Netanyahu’s words on Gaza that “wicked city, we will turn them into rubble,” implying a sinister intent and sentiment towards the Palestinians in Gaza. 

This finding of genocide, among some from Amnesty Intenational and other organizations, has been responded by Israels subsequent rejection, blame and their self-validation. 

“A country committing genocide would not plead with civilians to get out of the way of its bombs,” claims Netanyahu. Despite repeated targeting of civilian areas and designated humanitarian zones. When a forced evacuation order is issued, Palestinians not only have very limited and dangerous time to flee, but also a lot of uncertainty on whether the next palace they go to will be targeted soon after. 

Israel also denounced the UN commission and other organizations as ‘Hamas proxies’, their usual response to entities or individuals that publicly denounce their regime, resulting in the resignation of all head members of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory. 

Even before the official finding of genocide, accusation of gross human rights violations and famine heard simply denial that "there is no starvation in Gaza, no policy of starvation in Gaza,". Despite a tactical humanitarian aid blockade put in place on March 2 of 2025, including food, medicine and fuel. Since then Palestinians have risked their lives traveling to far off international aid checkpoints with no guarantee that they would receive food, and occasionally were met with violence upon arrival. As of September 15, 2025 the official death toll as a result of famine sits at around 430 people. 

A large portion of Israeli citizens uphold the same self-validating beliefs that the regime does; promoting a belief in a term called ‘Gazawood’. An ode to the cinema scene in California, it is the idea that journalists, like Hassona, stage photos and videos of the Palestinians in Gaza to create the facade of famine and genocide. One report in particular, authored by two Israelis and an American, claimed that 5.75 percent of 700 photos accounted for were real. An interview investigation of Israelis by the Guardian found most responses from Israeli youth to hold contempt and little empathy for Palestinian people. One woman in particular highlighted Gazawood, trying to convince the reporter that “a lot of photos that are not real, at least 50 percent if I’m not wrong, even 80 percent.” 

Shallow, false and biased claims like this are utilized to distract and draw attention away from the reality of life in Gaza. Aljazeera’s live death toll reports that as of 21 October, 2023: 68,229 people have been killed, 20,179 of which were children, 170,369 injured and traumatized, with thousands of more bodies under the rubble. 

Claims targeted at falsifying the reality of the carnage of Palestinians, simply seek to distract and further amplify Israel's colonial narrative that erases and discredits Palestinian lives to justify and continue genocidal actions and colonial expansion. It is therefore, especially important to turn to work and evidence coming out of Gaza and from Palestinians, since their existence and experience of colonial violence opposes and discredits Israel's lies. 

Václav Havel once said that “If the main pillar of the system is living a lie then it is not surprising that the fundamental threat to it is living in truth.” 

As of 31 October, 248 journalists have been killed in Gaza, amounting to the deadliest place for journalists in any conflict. All of the exerted effort Israel pours into silencing on the ground information, including blocking international journalists entrance into the Gaza strip, reveals the truth in itself. Documentation of Palestinian lived experience of genocide and famine poses a threat to the lie which upholds Israelis rejection of such claims and fuels their targeted campaigns against entities and individuals who seek to uproot its dominance. 

Photography as Resistance

The recording of history, so as to pass on and not forget, is a human tradition that has been revered and noted throughout human times. No matter the mode in which it is relayed, humans seem to place a deep importance on ensuring their ways of life, ritual, cultures, languages, history etc are not forgotten. 

The inception of photography transformed the documentation of history, bringing events to life in a way which could not be fully achieved prior. Photography of wars, protests or any historical event, erases the distance between the viewer and the occasion of the photograph. Being able to see visual documentation of the process, people, consequences, destruction, key moments of an historical event, humanizes the ongoing events to distant viewers. Rather than being another crazy story from a far off land, a historical photograph confronts the viewer and demands them to recognize the inherent humanity and actuality of what is unfolding in the image. This effect applies to photographical documentation of the genocide of Palestinian people.

Photography’s inception however, holds its roots in imperial colonialism through an inherently violent manner. Ariella Azoula argues that photography came about to fulfill colonial capturing, distancing, documentation, surveillance and characterization goals. Through this, photography essentially came to define colonised peoples as just that–erasing their humanity, knowledge, history and culture. In its place comes their imposed, objectified identity of an inferior human affording them a lower degree of citizenry in the way land is remembered. Encompassing a colonial categorization that is near-impossible to escape due to the way in which a photograph traps and suspends the people, land, memory and displacement in this social position.

However, photography has much potential as a liberating force. Azoula rallies for a form of collaboration among the oppressed to reject these imposed colonial identities which have shaped their existence and political treatment. By highlighting and treasuring their own forms of living and creation and stepping away from the modes and systems which come to define them, colonised peoples refuse an objectified status. In refusing such, their perspectives, knowledge and scholarship can begin to become visible again further opposing how the photograph has objectified them in the past. 

Meaning that photography authored by the oppressed, bringing in lived experience and perspective can work to oppose and liberate from the colonial messaging that has historically justified their oppression. Functioning as a mode of socio-political action to take on and enact a revolutionary change, something which is inherent in Fatma Hassona’s photographs of her homeland, of her people, of their lives. 

Liberating photography plays a very important role in Israel’s genocide given the rhetoric of denial and misinformation from its leaders and citizens. 

Fatma Hassona was a victim of Israel's attack on the truth of documentation; her work being a vital kind of photographic liberation of her people and land which for decades has been marked with colonial characterization by the Israeli regime. Witnessing her photos (and those of other Palestinian photographers) and the piece of writing she included alongside them, is a vital piece to distancing Palestinians from the boxes of their oppressors. To do so one must adopt an ethical mode viewing photos depicting subjugation or trauma, what Jill Bennett calls Empathic Vision. Instead of seeing these images and connecting with it through similarity which produces crude empathy and objectifies the subject, one should approach these works with an awareness that you as a viewer are in fact different. This deepens the emotional response and critical reflection of the history and situation depicted. Mixing a more emotional response with critical thought produces the political connection and power of the photo; linking the historical and social forces behind the depicted trauma. So rather than consuming photos in an objectifying manner, it is vital to turn to a more conscious mode. All of the following photos and more can be found on her Instagram.

Fatma’s Photos

Mourning of Loss 

F. Hassona: When Al-Jawaheri said, "Sadness may kill his loved ones, they are away from him, so how of those whose loved ones have lost,"  I realized what he said when I looked at this picture, I do not know how much force I paid to take this picture, but now I can indicate to you the feelings in it, on the years of sadness, on the burning that is not caused by fire, but by a lot and repetition, repeated letdowns, the repetition of blood, and the repetition of black color in the same painting 

This bitter farewell will remain forever, a scar in time and space, will never be healed from the slight of loss.

The pure raw emotions behind these women represent a kind of sorrow and mourning that will forever be unintelligible and intangible to people who have lived a life free of genocide. But it points to the larger historical injustices of the Palestinian people. Repeated letdowns and repetitions of blood point to the generational pain, suffering and violence felt since the inception of Palestinian displacement. Examples of in this history include:

The Nakba, an overall commemoration and recognition of the horrific violence Palestinians have experienced collectively since 1917–when zionist organizations first started their displacement campaign. 

Israel’s Six-Day war and occupation of Gaza Strip and West Bank in 1967. An attack launched on Egypt by Israel, leading to the occupation of the Sinai Peninsula, Syria’s Golan Heights and claiming control over the West Bank and the Gaza strip. The UN forced Israel out of the Gaza strip, but they still control the West Bank, justifying that it is for protection from neighboring countries and of cultural and historical significance to Jewish people. A move that further chipped away at the existence of Palestinians in their own land.

• The First Intifada in 1987, the first attempt at Palestinian uprising which saw the death of 1,300 Palestinians at the hands of Israeli suppression and denial of freedom. 

• The Second Intifada in 2000, where a former Israeli general visited the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif. Palestinian protesters fearing this to be an attempt to alter and override historical connection to the temple, initiated an uprising. This lasted for five years and claimed the lives of 5,000 Palestinians.

• Operation Protective Edge in 2014; a 50 day Israeli invasion of the Gaza strip following attacks from both sides. 2,000 Palestinians were killed, and cooperation was only granted through Israel–U.S cooperation. 

Behind all of this violence is a slew of peace accords and ceasefires orchestrated by foreign entities very distant from Israel’s colonial oppression–like Donald Trump’s current failing ceasefire– that at one point or another come crashing down, costing more lives and pain. Repeated violence, control and oppression has forcibly marked the existence of the Palestinian, who have never been granted full control over the conditions of their own people. Reproducing pain over and over generations of Palestinians. 

F. Hassona: The only words that were echoing in my mind the moment this picture was taken were the words of Mahmoud Darwish when they said,

“How lone you were, my mother's son.

Oh son, more than my father.

How much have you been alone

And now I realize our loneliness, alone, alone.

The picture of a martyr who was killed today on the university college street."

This image of a brother in tears over the body of his murdered brother, is a testament to loved ones who have been ripped from their families. 

The most recent numbers, in April of 2025, reported that over 2,100 Palestinian families in the Gaza strip have been completely wiped out by Israel. In 2024, the number of families with one survivor left stood at 3,463 people. Amounting to a tragic loss of not just the families, but their stories and history of Palestinian ancestry and existence; exterminated because their existence threatens Israelis homeland narrative. 

Both of these photos represent deep Palestinian sadness and frustration with a world that has facilitated and profited from their suffering and stagnation into a place of powerlessness over the existence of their own people on their own land.

Normalcy of Everyday Genocide for Younger Generations

F. Hassona: Hunger strikes again in the northern Gaza Strip, no healthy food, no vegetables, no meat, no kind of food here, and if anything exists, at very expensive prices. About 700,000 people living in northern Gaza, mostly children and infants, suffering from malnutrition, and a lack of healthy food, these people are at risk of starvation at any moment As a person who lives in the north and documents the systematic crimes carried out by the occupation, I also suffer, and I never imagined that one of my wishes is to get "eating like the world and people", I never imagined that I would be deprived of everything natural at once, I am not alone, but a whole people who suffer, starvation and kill by all means in full view of the world. 

The pictures tell little, because the reality is more pruning 

As mentioned above, Netanyahu has not only denied genocide but had in fact orchestrated the systematic and tactical starvation of Palestinians in Gaza–confirmed by multiple human rights organizations. This image along with Hassona’s personal testament to the hunger and threat of starvation she and countless other Palestinians face is evidence of the brutal reality and cruelty the Israeli regime has enacted. Israel targets journalists because of this kind of evidence. Because global knowledge of this evidence of the existence of Palestinian starvation falsifies the lies on which Israel’s genocide is built

This photo also draws attention to the effects that starvation will have on Palestinian children of the current younger generation and at an intergenerational level. 

A UN spokesperson established that children have borne the brunt of the famine with around 5,000 children under the age of 5 in Central and Southern Gaza were "acutely malnourished.” Considering that health data collection in times of genocide are usually scarce, this number could be much higher. 

The consequence of severe acute malnutrition can leave people with life long health conditions. This includes hormonal imbalances, metabolic dysfunction, growth stunting, immune system suspension or organ system damage; threatening brain development and cardiac function in children. Not to mention that acute starvation, especially in children, always invites the threat of death. 

Being victim to such high levels in malnutrition during crucial developmental periods will burden Gaza's children for a lifetime. Increasing the chance of having behavioral issues, reduced educational ability, impaired cognitive and motor function, all because the body was so violently restricted from food at such a young age. 

Psychological impact will also be devastating. Prior to the current genocide young Palestinian mental health rates were very poor; with a reported 60% committing self-harm and half to be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. However, it will be even greater now due to the toxic stress from constant activation of stress levels during childhood, increasing likelihood of future anxiety, depression and stress disorders. This means prior levels of poor mental health will only increase. 

At an intergenerational level the children of the current young generation of Palestinians will feel the effects of their parents malnutrition. Acute malnutrition in early life can biologically alter one's genetic codes. Consequences at this intergenerational level can manifest in their children's increased risk of breast cancer, type 2 diabetes and anxiety and depression at the psychological level.

F. Hassona: They think it as wasted blood, it is our extended revenge.

The casual way this child washes off the blood reveals the disturbing reality of how normalized death is for such young people and Palestinians in general. Normalization of genocide that the international community has perpetuated throughout this genocide has been appalling. A statement by Palestinian-American professor Noura Erakat issued to the UN in May of 2025 expressed it best. 

“By failing to apply sanctions and engage in boycott, many of you normalized apartheid and now by failing to act, you are at risk of normalizing genocide. But if you normalize genocide, you will have nothing left. If it is permissible to deny a people exist, to cage them, subject them to systematic warfare, then to use AI to bomb them at unprecedented rates in their homes, to burn them alive in tents, to experiment on them with suicide drones, to deny them medical care, to allow premature babies to rot in NICU units, and mamas to be denied anesthetic to have c-sections, to starve them while their food decays in miles of aid trucks, all without consequence and worse, while insisting that their lives are secondary – if not altogether insignificant – relative to Zionist settler sovereignty, then I promise you that no one is safe. As put by Colombian President, Gustavo Pietro, “Gaza is a rehearsal for the rest of the world.”

The normalization of violence, through chronic exposure, at the level of a Palestinian poses psychological effects beyond what is known about current PTSD syndromes. With research pointing to factors separate from mental health, but how an individual conceptualizes the world. That can mean severe exposure to violence over a lifetime fundamentally dictating how a person thinks, feels and acts. Including social attitudes towards other identity groups or what kind of political stances a person adopts. This field, however, is wildly understudied. But the point stands that normalization of violence and genocide can bring no good to the world and will only further exacerbate Palestinian suffering and extend violence globally. 

The Reality of Violence

F. Hassona: What does the martyr think? What is the last idea that stays in his head before the rocket smashes it? And what would his wishes be if he knew his moment had come?

I think a lot, if I live a full life, will I be enough for me to do whatever I want and everything I wish for? If I die, will my wishes die with me?

I think so far about this martyr, a martyr came, they wiped his blood, they bloomed him, and none of his family has yet known, but after I left I saw everyone's faces, his wife ate crying her eyes, his brothers are rushing with shock, and his mother can't walk, she would like if you don't arrive and see what you will see, but it's the truth and destiny.

I think a lot, what was the last idea that was really in his head.

Did he live enough?

Did he die enough?

I don't know.

The feet of the people surrounding the dead body is symbolic of the digitalized nature of this genocide. The whole world watches the systematic erasure of Palestinians from their phones. Meanwhile, international bodies argue, with no inclusion of actual Palestinians, over the language used to discuss the genocide, as if semantics determine the reality of death, starvation and torture in the Palestinan enclave. 

In a recent interview with Palestinian activist Nour Alsaqa by the Middle East eye, she reflects on this sentiment. Saying that the future of the ongoing Ceasefire in Gaza, which has been violated multiple times, looks very “bleak”. She laments that violations are exacerbated by the fact that Palestinians are not “allowed” or “consulted in any sense in determining what happens to their own lives.” 

By the time the UN officially declared genocide, Israel had already killed more than 63,500 people, through brutal displacement, bombings and gross human rights violations. The international community has failed to stand by the Palestinian people through years of their refusal to condemn Israel's actions until it was too late. The inability to act has cost thousands of Palestinians lives, while they were watching the clear genocidal brutality of Israel’s actions from their own countries.  

F. Hassona: We pray at dawn groups, and we go to God from His seven "heavens "congregations

We wake up to a massacre, and flames eat soft bodies, digesting them quickly, until they disappear or become ashes. They kill us with tools heavier than the mountains of the world, they pierce our hearts and leave us sick with loss and nostalgia. This is the massacre of the school worshippers of the followers

This photo, of a body buried under the rubble of an airstrike, can be seen to call attention to the devastating truth of death in Israel’s genocide. Underneath the 61 million tonnes of rubble lies up to 10,000 bodies which have been trapped throughout the course of the genocide. Amid the current ceasefire, rescue teams have only used basic tools to excavate bodies, as Israel refuses to allow the entrance of excavators and large machinery into Gaza. Thousands of Palestinians know their family members are dead but have been unable to excavate their bodies and give them a proper, dignified burial. 

One year after the attack on Aya Abu Nasr extended family's home; 50 out of 100 family members killed remain stuck under the rubble. Trying to uncover their remains which lie in between the rubble of the first and ground floor, she shared with the Guardian, is impossible without proper machinery. This is yet another mode of denying Palestinian human dignity. By refusing proper burial for deceased Palestinians, Israel doubles down on the dehumanization that their death signified–instilling that Palestinians deserve to be forgotten, that they never existed. 

“This is the massacre of the school worshippers of the followers.” Hassona's words point to the destruction Israel has carried out by targeting important cultural and religious heritage sites to Palestinians. A common tactic used by perpetrators in genocide; destroying landmarks of cultural significance serves to erase the targeted groups history, validating colonial/genocidal narratives that perpetrators enlist. 

This kind of destruction has been committed by Israel's onslaught of Palestinian expulsion. Which saw the erasure of villages and valuable culture–historical sites which disproved Israel narrative of an “empty promise land.” More sites to be erased for Israel to erect their state and influence include, crusader towers, fortresses, and mausoleums; all evidence of Palestinian history and existence. 

On June 5, 2025 the UN released a report stating that since the beginning of genocide, Israel has decimated “10 religious sites, 48 buildings of historical and/or artistic interest, three depositories of movable cultural property, six monuments, one museum and seven archaeological sites.” This amounts to around 53% of Gaza heritage sites, not including past destructions; adding to the weight of cultural erasure. 

Finally, this photo stands as evidence against a common claim Israel makes after an airstrike. The lie that there were no civilians in a decimated building, despite widely documented proof there was, and that the strike was targeting intelligence of Hamas activity. Human rights watch have countered Israel's claim, with casualties being primarily civilians and children. Very seldom is a Hamas military official actually the target. The UN has also disproved what Israel has deemed “terror infrastructures;” utilized as emotive dehumanizing language to describe multi-story residential buildings housed with civilians. Israel employs this kind of language to validate their actions and reduce the life of a Palestinian to an excusable one to take.

The Beauty in Palestinian Resilience

F. Hassona (in collaboration with presentpalestine): Within the Northern Gaza Strip this family refuses to leave their home. Though the walls of their home are destroyed, this family gets creative and uses carpets to cover the blank spaces and lack of walls. Perhaps these people did not know that their home now wears the scars and vibrancy of Palestinian culture and life. They have created a statement within this building that's barely standing. These are the things we see on the ground, Palestinians have experienced the worst things imaginable. Yet their bright nature.

Just remember guys, only cowards attack innocents from the sky. Israel and the IDF Nazis will see their judgement day soon. There is no room on Earth for baby murderers. We will not share the planet with them, we will not breathe the same air as them. We will not look away, we will not stop speaking out against the injustice. If the world powers want to outright abuse the human rights of a group of helpless civilians than your picking a fight directly with the people. The people will not look away, we will never forget this genocide and how it was ALLOWED to take place.

These carpets displayed on homes at risk of demolition by Israel stand in stark contrast to their attempts at erasing and denying Palestinian existence. These rugs hung here in this photo is a kind of embroidery practice of cultural significance to Palestinian memory–tatreez. 

The embroidery style is significant for the Palestinian diaspora. Over time it became a source of livelihood and an act of cultural resistance, with symbols like the cypress tree representing resilience and post-1967 designs incorporating the banned colors of the Palestinian flag. This photo is deeply metaphorical: you can try your hardest but you can not do away with the truth. 

In the face of manipulative violence, reality, love and courage persist. A symbol that no matter how long they are prosecuted by the Israeli regime they will not rest in their resistance and they will not forget what has been taken from them.

F. Hassona: The world was incredible here, in this picture, capturing the moment when the people returned to their sea. The road to the sea was the most dangerous path anyone here could take, but our longing was greater. Greater than any warplane that would follow us and try to kill us. Greater than all the gunboats, snipers, and even death itself

The scene was amazing at the moment of arrival. The residents returned to the sea, carrying the life they had been waiting for so long. The war hadn't given it to them, so they came back searching for it, for the remnants of their voices that the war had taken. They returned despite the war, to the only place that still bore witness to their city and its simple life. They returned to the sea, staring down the war and defying its destruction.

The power of Hassona’s words connected to the photo of the sea highlight the cultural and economic ties Palestinians have to the sea. The sea has symbolized openness, livelihood, and connection to the world. That even in the face of violence which deprives them of their land and homes, Palestinians will abandon the longing for their homeland because their cultural memory will never fade. 

Fatma Hassona’s photographs endure as powerful acts of resistance, preserving the truth of Palestinian suffering and resilience despite Israel’s relentless attempts to silence them. Her work demonstrates how documentation becomes a form of liberation, challenging denial, countering erasure, and insisting on the humanity of a people facing genocide. In honoring her images, we honor a history that refuses to be buried and a future that demands justice

Approval for the publication of Hassona’s work was formally obtained from Fatma Hassona's husband, Mu'taz Daher.