Painters bring new life to hard-hit areas in Gaza

In this Saturday Dec 19, 2015 photo, a Palestinian woman hangs laundry in front of her painted house in the Shati Refugee Camp in Gaza City. [Photo/AP]

Gaza has not been a colorful place to live in recent years. The Islamic militant Hamas group conquered the seaside territory by force in 2007 and has since fought three major wars with Israel, the deadliest and most destructive of them in the summer of 2014.

Gaza suffered heavy damage in the fighting, and most of what was destroyed has not been rebuilt. An Israeli and Egyptian blockade of the territory, a bitter rift between rival Palestinian factions and a failure by international donors to deliver on promised pledges of aid money have compounded the crisis.