The band had started a fundraiser through a GoFundMe fundraiser late last year to get out of Gaza and rebuild their lives away from war.
Gaza’s Sol Band is set to perform in Qatar for the first time since the war started after members managed to safely exit the enclave.
The popular band has been a voice of hope in Gaza while documenting Israel’s brutality on the ground for more than six months.
The band was established in 2012 and has since turned into a prominent voice of hope in Gaza. However, details regarding their evacuation and journey to Doha remain unclear.
Like the thousands of other Palestinians evacuated from Gaza, Sol’s members are seeking ways to live a life outside of the war and continue to spread the message of their homeland and people.
Yet, the trauma and anxiety caused by witnessing Israel destroy the life they knew and brutally murder their loved ones have remained.
For Palestinian musician Hamada Nasrallah, he had to witness a TikTok video of an Israeli soldier playing a guitar his father gifted to him 15 years ago on the rubble of their home.
The guitar is among the most precious items stolen from his destroyed home, something that Gaza’s population witnessed since Israeli forces began their ground invasion late last year.
“My dad died shortly after the 2014 attack on Gaza, and now they have come to take the last souvenir I have from him,” Nasrallah wrote on Instagram last November.
“Isn’t it enough that they take away our loved ones, our homes, our families, and even our music and memories? Where does the injustice stop?!” he added.
Lead singer Rahaf Shamaly also emerged as one of the most prominent voices in Gaza since the beginning of the war on October 7, 2023. Shamaly also confirmed leaving Gaza in an emotional post on her Instagram story on Wednesday, where she said her family is still left behind.
“Since I went out crying as if I was unable to cry in Gaza. This world is extremely ugly, I left Gaza but I’m not well,” she said.
The band had started a fundraiser through a GoFundMe fundraiser late last year to get out of Gaza and rebuild their lives away from war.
“The recent wave of destruction has left us grappling with profound challenges, including the loss of our homes, loved ones and studio. Even when things get tough, we stay determined to find meaning in life and hold onto hope,” the band said on their GoFundMe page.
Israel’s war on Gaza has defaced the once vibrant coastal enclave that used to be bustling with its population despite the blockade Israel imposed in 2007.
Within nearly seven months of the current war, Israel has killed at least 34,262 people and wounded at least 77,229 people.
Cultural and heritage sites in Gaza have been among Israel’s targets. On April 10, UNESCO confirmed that Israel destroyed 43 cultural and heritage sites.
The figure included 10 religious sites, 24 buildings of historical significance, two depositories of movable cultural property, three monuments, one museum, and three archaeological sites.
Some of the key mosques Israel has destroyed during its genocidal war on Gaza include the Al-Omari Grand Mosque, the third largest mosque in Palestine which dates back to more than 1400 years.
The destruction of heritage and religious sites by Israel meets the definition of “cultural genocide.”
The term refers to “any deliberate act committed to destroying the language, religion or culture of a[…] group, such as, for example, prohibiting the use of the group’s language or its schools or places of worship.”
Israel has also destroyed around 60 percent of Gaza’s residential buildings and 80 percent of its commercial facilities, according to the United Nations’ latest flash update.
More than 80 percent of Gaza’s 2.2 million population has been displaced with barely any access to necessities due to Israel’s ongoing blockade.
Less than 200 trucks have been entering Gaza daily and do not contain fuel due to Israel’s restrictions on the type of aid that enters. The total number of trucks is significantly less than the pre-war daily average of 500 through the Rafah Crossing alone.
