GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — For Hanaa Hamash, art is about expressing herself and giving a voice to the suffering of Palestinian women. The exhibition Dec. 20-22 in Gaza City, titled “13 Million,” symbolizing the number of Palestinians around the world, focused on the strength of Palestinian women who live in harsh conditions under occupation.

Hamash, 27, told Al-Monitor, “I wanted to convey two messages. First, I wanted to send a message of love to all Palestinians who find themselves dispersed in different countries around the world as a result of the Palestinian Nakba in 1948, and to emphasize that the Palestinian people are still united, despite the distances. Second, I wanted to embody the historical role of women in serving their people and their struggle against the Israeli occupation."

She added that Palestinian folk songs played throughout the exhibition.

The exhibition, which consisted of 50 paintings, portrayed Palestinian women in different eras. Some of the artworks show the women's traditional lifestyles in the cities that became part of the State of Israel after 1948, such as Jaffa and Haifa, with paintings of women dressed in embroidered outfits and scenes of women farming or sewing. Other works highlight their struggle during the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories in 1967, including one showing an Israeli soldier pointing his gun at the face of a Jerusalemite woman.