A live update from Gaza with artist Malak Mattar and We Are Not Numbers contributor Zainab Basheer during the May 2021 bombardment.

Malak is a highly original artist who paints expressionist faces, figures and semi-abstract designs. Her work captures the psychological landscape of life under siege, translating trauma, resilience and hope into vivid color and form. Zainab is a writer and journalist who documents life in Gaza through words, bearing witness to what the world too often ignores.

Both spoke to us directly from Gaza while the bombing continued, sharing what they were experiencing in real time — the fear, the exhaustion, the determination to keep creating and telling their stories even as the world around them was being destroyed. Their voices offered something news reports couldn't: the human reality of living through bombardment.

Our guests:

• Malak Mattar: Artist, Gaza
• Zainab Basheer: Writer and journalist, We Are Not Numbers, Gaza