The subject of Rizek Abdel Jawad’s photography was not always destruction.
Prior to Oct. 7, 2023, Jawad had sought to capture and convey the complexities of daily life in Gaza. His photos were often bright and playful, featuring the faces of smiling Palestinian children or a farmer’s colorful bounty. He seemed particularly fascinated with the sea: his Instagram is filled with images of folks diving into the Mediterranean or fishing at sunset. One photo from the spring of 2023 captures a man wakeboarding behind a small blue fishing boat, its driver proudly flying the flag of Palestine.
But for nearly three years now, Jawad’s work — like the work of so many journalists, writers and artists in Gaze — has been transformed and consumed by Israel’s genocide.
Today, photos of the sea have largely been replaced by images of residential buildings reduced to rubble, child amputees living in sprawling refugee camps, and displaced families searching desperately for shelter or water; photos of a world being erased.
“Gaza is not as the world once knew it,” Rizek wrote only July 2, which marked the 1,000th day of genocide.
“The neighbourhoods that once teemed with life have been reduced to rubble, the roads that once connected people now separate them, and the tents that were erected as temporary shelters have become entire cities of fabric, offering no protection from the summer heat, the winter cold, or the bombardment that no longer distinguishes between house and tent, between a sleeping child and a mother waiting for bread or a cup of water.“
Despite this ongoing violence, Jawad’s photography still contains the gentle humanity that distinguished his earlier work; still thrums with the herculean resilience on display on the streets of Gaza each day.
“His photographs linger in the space between devastation and tenderness,” reads a statement by Canadian Journalists for Justice in Palestine (CJJP), a national collective of journalists raising awareness of Israel’s ongoing murder of journalists in Palestine. “He traces the quiet gestures, fleeting intimacies, and enduring presence of the Palestinian people, who refuse to disappear.”
On Aug. 5, Jawad’s work will be on display at Gallery TPW at 170 St. Helens Ave. in Toronto. Presented by CJJP, the free, one-day event will have prints and framed photography for sale, with all proceeds going to Jawad.
“This is the first photo exhibit featuring a Gaza journalist in Toronto since Oct. 7, [2023]” says Samira Mohyeddin, an independent journalist and CJJP member who helped organize the exhibit. “His photographs are harrowing, but really beautiful, and I think that’s what people will see when they come to this exhibit.”
Organizers of the exhibit, titled Lens on Gaza, say they hope it acts as a reminder that those who have been documenting the genocide for nearly three years are not simply detached observers. Since October 2023, Israel has killed more than 200 Palestinian journalists in Gaza and in Israeli detention centers, according to the Committee to Project Journalists (CPJ).
Among those killed was Rizek’s fellow photojournalist Ismail Abu Hatab, who was killed along with more than three dozen others when Israel’s military dropped a 500-pound bomb on the seaside Al-Baqa Cafe. Abu Hatab’s death took place just weeks after his photography was displayed at an exhibit in Los Angeles. Titled Between Sky and Sea, the exhibit also showed in Chicago in summer 2025.
Those who have survived have suffered great hardship.
“These were among the most difficult years of my life,” Rizek tells The Grind via email.
“I was forced to live apart from my family as they were displaced multiple times, while I documented scenes of killing, destruction and starvation. On several occasions, I also witnessed and documented the deaths of fellow journalists who were killed while reporting from the field.”
“I chose to continue covering the war because I believed that if I — and other journalists — failed to document what was happening, my people’s story and suffering would never reach the rest of the world,” he adds.
In recent months, Gaza has faded from the headlines, overtaken by stories about the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and other geopolitical events.
Israel and its allies, including the U.S. and Canada, have used this opportunity to “whitewash or launder their crimes of the past three years”, Mohyeddin says.
“The Biden administration, in particular, is in this sort of ‘shoot and cry’ mode right now,” she adds, citing recent article that suggests that American officials now regret certain decisions that enabled the genocide in Gaza.
Meanwhile, Israel’s assault on Gaza continues. The Israeli military has killed nearly 1,200 Palestinians, including hundreds of children, in Gaza since a ceasefire agreement took place in Oct. 2025, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Working as a photojournalist in Gaza, Mohyeddin insists, remains incredibly dangerous.
“These exhibits are not statements about what has happened, but what continues to happen,” Mohyeddin says.
“It’s about Rizek’s dogged insistence that the genocide has not stopped … and it’s also a refusal. He constantly tells me: ‘we’re not going anywhere.’”
Lens on Gaza takes places at Gallery TPW on Wednesday, Aug. 5, between 4:00 PM and 10 :00 PM.
The exhibit is presented by Canadian Journalists for Justice in Palestine, Canadian Independent Media Fund, Oxfam Canada, and On The Line Media. Curated by Darlene Huynh.
