Created in 2017 for The Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem, Banksy’s Angels with Oxygen Masks is a hauntingly subtle mural painted directly onto the walls of the installation. The work shows two softly rendered angels floating mid-air, each wearing an oxygen mask as if struggling to breathe.

The contrast is striking: angels, usually symbols of purity, hope and divine protection, are portrayed as vulnerable beings needing aid to survive. Positioned in a setting overlooking the Israeli West Bank barrier, the piece speaks to the suffocating reality of conflict zones. By equipping sacred figures with life-support gear, Banksy critiques both the spiritual and environmental consequences of occupation and division. Like much of the art in The Walled Off Hotel, the mural is quietly unsettling, a poetic reminder that even the divine may struggle where freedom is denied.