Banksy has been to the Gaza Strip. And he left his mark. Photos of four new graffiti pieces created on the ruins, along with a video entitled Make this the year you discover a new destination, have been published on the British artist's official website — an ironic invitation to "discover a new destination" this year: Gaza. "A unique setting" where one can feel safe because watched over by "friendly neighbours". The new incursion had been previewed on the unofficial Instagram account.

An extreme form of irony that Banksy himself translated as follows: "Gaza is often described as the world's largest open-air prison, because no one is allowed in or out. But describing it in those terms seems unfair to prisons, since here there is no electricity or clean drinking water nearly every day." Among the graffiti pieces one can see Bomb damage, a work inspired by Auguste Rodin's The Thinker, and a giant kitten.

The artist offered an explanation for the domestic animal: "A man asked me what my work meant and I explained that I wanted to show the destruction of Gaza by putting photos on my website, but that people on the internet only look at photos of kittens."

And then there is the video. After showing the destruction first and then the total lack of interest (still not a penny or a brick has reached Gaza since the end of last summer's conflict), Banksy closes the almost two minutes with a line that cannot leave one indifferent: "If we wash our hands of a conflict between the powerful and the powerless, we side with the powerful. We are not neutral."