Despite unbearable conditions under Israeli siege, youth from the Gaza Strip won many of the categories in this year’s prestigious Palestine National Music Competition. In seeking to explain this Ayman El-Hallaq writes, “Music, as far as I think, to such a group of Gazan children is more than a collection of melodies to be played on musical instruments; it is a way of survival, it has a healing effect as a treatment that soothes the injuries of life in Gaza.”