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Each dot here symbolizes one person, their hope, and a desire to live - despite everything. The Gaza war rendered them anonymous, reducing each to just another number

by Sheren Falah Saab
Aug 15, 2024

Salam Khalil Maima, a 32-year-old journalist and mother of three, always asked to be called Um Hadi (Hadi's mother). She wanted everyone to know how proud she was to be a mother, even when she became a mother for the first time. Amana, another Gazan, had also become a first-time mother, having just given birth. And Ulla – a young woman who dreamed of leaving Gaza to study abroad and didn't know if she would ever return.

I had met all three of them before the Gaza war. I met others who lived there and who today are history. Just a few days ago, a friend who is still alive told me that people in Gaza pray that when they die, their bodies will remain "whole – not in pieces."

I can't stop thinking about this sentence, and these Gazans wish to die "whole." It reflects the depth of their despair, and the knowledge that sooner or later death will reach those who have survived so far.

Reviewing over and over again the lists of Gaza's dead, lists that include both terrorists and civilians, is very depressing. So is the rate at which they grow. The list from the end of November 2023 ran to 212 pages. The most recent one, which dates from the beginning of last month, reaches 532 pages and contains 28,000 names.

The list is the responsibility of the Hamas Health Ministry, whose veracity has been the subject of dispute since the start of the war. The Israel Defense Forces has asserted that no one should rely on the figures because they don't distinguish between terrorists and innocents, contain duplications and present other problems. But the IDF has not provided alternative figures, and international organizations say that the reports are reliable.

The killing in the Gaza Strip: The data, stories and consequences

Much data here has been cross-referenced. I did this throughout the war, analyzing the lists, checking and cross-checking information about the dead at the price of great sadness. Who they were, where they came from, what they did in their lives, how they were killed, what kind of life they had, had they finished school or fulfilled their dreams.

All of a sudden, the life behind every name reveals itself. And like the death lists, this too is a map of the dead, which includes 40,000 dots.

Each dot symbolizes one person, their hope, and a desire to live despite everything. The war rendered them anonymous, reducing each of them to just another number.