Melodies amidst guns of destruction in Gaza

Music instructor Ahmed Abu Amsha, 43, of the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music, holds an Oud as he poses for a portrait at a tent in Gaza City, August 12, 2025 

Children singing ‘Do Re Mi’ from the 1965 film ‘Sound of Music’, or the soothing tones of an acoustic guitar, are the last things one expects to hear amidst the dust and ruins of Gaza City. But a group of enormously resilient teachers including guitarist/violinist Ahmed Abu Amsha are braving the odds by teaching music to the traumatised children of Gaza, many of whom have lost friends, family members and homes.
The smiling, bearded Abu Amsha, who’s 43, teaches ‘Do Re Mi’ in a tent. Three female students are practising ‘Greensleeves’ outside another tent. All classes are held outdoors or in tents. The school, a branch of the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music in the West Bank, has suffered extensive damage. A grand piano has gone missing. Students are taught with the few surviving instruments, and percussion instruments are made out of whatever materials they can find.
Twenty-five-year-old Violin teacher Hamada Al-Kharoubi teaches violin to a group of very young girls and boys. They are too small to show their inner suffering on their faces. But it can be seen in the faces of older students. 
“When I play” says Al-Kharoubi, “I feel I’m healing wounds with the violin.”
“When I play” said 15 year old Rifan al-Qassas who started learning the oud, an Arab lute, when she was nine, “I lose my fear.” Several of the students, including 14-year-old Lubya Alyaan, a promising violinist, have been killed.
Last year, the irrepressible Ahmed Abu Amsha initiated this ‘music revival’ by playing music outside the tents filled with refugees. Soon, the momentum to continue teaching music amidst the ruins and chaos, as well as hunger and thist, was built up. He and his friends also visit kindergartens to play music. 
They are now teaching nearly 600 students in southern and central Gaza with 12 musicians and three singing tutors. But students and teachers must fight their weakness from hunger to attend classes and work.