Sol Band

Sol Band (named after the musical note but also reminiscent of the Arabic word جول, jawl/jōl, 'roaming, wandering')^[2] was founded in late 2012, in the wake of the Israeli offensive on Gaza that November, by a group of youths who had met in 2011.^[3][4][5] Shortly after, they started sharing their music on YouTube and Facebook.^[6] In 2016, the band opened the "Sayed Darwish Music School" (named after the Egyptian singer) in Gaza City. The students included Nana Ashour, who became known as "Gaza's first girl drummer", and singer Rafah Shamaly, who joined the band in 2018.^[6][7]

In 2019, they collaborated with the Falastini TV channel to record a number of Arab folk songs. At the end of the year, most of the band relocated to Istanbul, Turkey.^[3][4] Five members returned to Gaza in August 2023 to record an album, but the outbreak of the Gaza war halted their plans until they were evacuated to Qatar in April 2024;^[1][8] vocalist Hamada Nasrallah denounced an IDF soldier for stealing a guitar he had been gifted by his late father, who was killed by Israel in the 2014 Gaza war.^[8] The following June, Sol Band appeared on a track from Saint Levant's debut album Deira.^[9]

The group has performed at local and international events, including at the French Institute (Gaza, 2015; Jerusalem, 2020), the Palestine International Festival (2018), the Palestine Music Expo (Ramallah, 2019), the EU-sponsored Rooftop Festival (Palestine, 2018), the Arabesques Festival (Montpellier, 2021), the Copacobana Festival (Ghent, 2021), the Jerash Festival (Jordan, 2023), and the Maite Zaitut Festival (Basque Country, 2025).^{[3][4][6][10][11][12]} In June 2025, they played in Bilbao (Basque Country, Spain) at the closing ceremony of a protest organized by Gure Esku [es] for the right of self-determination of the Basque people,^[13] as well as "in solidarity with other peoples in their struggle for liberation".^[14][15] They have since taken part in other events in the Basque Country, including the local university, with a European tour planned to start in early 2026.^[16][17]

Sol Band's repertoire includes patriotic songs about resistance and livelihood in Palestine, as well as music from historic Arab artists like Umm Kulthum, Mohamed Abdel Wahab, Wadih El Safi and Fairuz.^[4][6]

Founding member Fares Anbar also founded "Fares Anbar Music House", a physical and online school of percussion, songwriting and music theory.^[2]

Sol Band gained a significant following since its establishment, but some conservative figures in Palestinian society have been critical of a mixed-gender band performing in public^[3][4] and its members reported having faced severe restrictions by the Hamas administration of the Gaza Strip.^[11]