Personal Info
- Country of residence: Portugal
Information
Mahasin Essam Ali Al-Khatib was born in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip on October 10, 1992, to a Palestinian refugee family whose origins trace back to the depopulated village of Burayr in the occupied Gaza district.
She completed her primary and secondary education in the Gaza Strip, obtained her high school diploma, and enrolled at the Islamic University of Gaza to study mathematics. She worked as a freelancer in digital illustration, marketing her work online and specializing in motion graphics and cartoon character design . She also contributed to training numerous IT graduates in digital illustration at freelance academies in Gaza City.
Mahasen believed that the complete liberation of Palestine was the only just solution to the Palestinian issue, and that the right of return should be comprehensive and unconditional. Despite her pessimistic view of the Arab situation, which she saw as complicity that harmed the Palestinian cause, she clung to the hope that the Arab peoples would play a role in supporting the Palestinian struggle.
Mahasen used her account on the X platform (@MahasenAlkhatib) to document the horrors of the genocidal war waged by the occupying state on the Gaza Strip in October 2023. Her drawings focused on the last moments of the bombing victims, especially children, expressing their dreams and pains. She also showed the Palestinian defiance in the face of the Zionist destruction machine. She continued to deliver her humanitarian message, despite the war and the brutal bombing of civilians, and continued to offer training courses, believing that art is a right, even in the most difficult circumstances.
She was working on writing an educational book about digital drawing, intended to provide a practical guide for beginners, but the bombing that targeted her home resulted in the loss of the book draft and her artwork.
Mahasen insisted on staying in Jabalia, and a month after the outbreak of the war, she wrote on her X platform website, expressing a courageous national and humanitarian stance: “Mahasen from Gaza… Palestine… I will not leave my home, I will not be displaced to the south… I will hold on until the last moment, until the last moment.” She decided to make one of her paid courses available for free as a continuous charity for her soul, in a step that reflects her humanity and her deep belief in her mission.
Mahasen was martyred in an Israeli airstrike that targeted her residential neighborhood in Jabalia on October 18, 2024. Following her martyrdom, a number of international cartoonists called for the establishment of an award in her name, in recognition of her creativity and her role in highlighting the Palestinian cause through art. Mahasen received a special tribute at the Lucca Comics & Games Festival 2024 in Italy, where her unique creativity and outstanding contributions to the field of animation and comics were praised.
Despite her passing, her works remain a testament to the suffering of the Palestinians and a source of inspiration for artists around the world.
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