Gaza artist draws in sand for quake victims

The Turkish-Syria earthquake is sending shockwaves around the world for its intensity, and heartache.

Palestinian artist Mohamed Totah made a tapestry of Turkey and Syria on the Gaza beach so that everyone remembers the dead, estimated at 27,000 as of Sunday.

Anadolu carried a full feature with pictures about the Gaza artist. It quoted him as saying: “We, the Palestinian people, have tasted pain and suffering and we feel the calamity that befell our people in Syria and Türkiye.”

Totah lost a leg in an Israeli military offensive on Gaza in 2009.

The painting shows the names of Türkiye and Syria written on the sand, with a fist of a Palestinian flag.

The earthquakes were felt by 13 million people across 10 provinces in Türkiye, and also many other countries in the region including Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, Israel and Iraq.