Visionary Gaza Living Story campaign launches

Brightly coloured nurseries, falafel shops, sycamore fig trees, restored universities and tenderly preserved war graves all feature amid vault of stories published on campaign's opening day.

Gaza Living Story goes live today, 14th October 2025, the day after world leaders signed a ceasefire 'deal' halting a campaign of erasure that left 92 percent of homes uninhabitable. This followed two years of multiple displacements impacting the strip's entire population.

Gaza Living Story was conceived in March 2025 as a necessary and artistic form of resistance to the forced depopulation plans shared by an incoming US government that had campaigned on a pledge to deliver "peace in a day". The so-called Gaza Riviera Plan unveiled in February laid bare an illegal goal to "take over" and "own" Gaza.

Isreal meanwhile escalated their assault in the spring and officials continued to more regularly and overtly state plans to 'cleanse' Gaza.

For generations, Palestinians have carried stories of love, loss, and resistance, tied to the streets, their homes, and their land.

Time has shown that what can never be destroyed are Palestinians' memories and dreams.

Day one of Gaza Living Story saw the publication of hundreds of initial contributions (past, present and future photos, videos, drawings and descriptions) shared by survivors, documenting their:

• Most treasured places visited before October 2023

• The condition of these places as they are in October 2025

• The deeply poignant and personal visions for how Palestinians wish these locations to restored in the future.

Gaza Living Story launched with several vivid contributions. Jump into the map to explore dreams of replanted sycamore fig trees, nostalgia for brightly coloured nurseries for the children of working mothers, and pining for lost falafel shops. You can also navigate for deeply harboured ambitions for the rebuilding of Gaza's world class universities, along with horticultural ideas for the preservation of damaged war graves.

"I hope there will be a grove of sycamore fig trees," writes survivor Isra Moqbel, with her photo pictured above. "There are [currently] no more sycamore fig trees due to the carpet bombing and the lack of water to save any of the plants. There was a big old sycamore fig tree planted between the door to our house and our neighbours. Every summer they used to send us a big bowl . Sycamore figs look like figs but they taste similar to blueberries... but much tastier.!

"What if the nursery could come back to life again, filled with joy and laughter?" wonders Sajida. "Lulu is now four years old. If the nursery were rebuilt, she would be one of the oldest children there. When she left, she was just 2. Now she would be in the senior class, proudly showing the younger kids around."

"I dream of a day when we can rebuild it" Sajida continues, "painting the walls in bright colours, pink and blue again." I hope it becomes once more a joyful place where children are safe, laugh, and play without the fear of bombs. I hope working mothers can leave their children there without worrying if they will be able to pick them up alive. I hope every child I know can go back to drawing, eating, and playing together with the brightest colours and happiest smiles.

Drone footage of the strip broadcast during the week of the 'peace deal' signed on October 13th displayed 40 million tonnes of grey rubble. Official maps and satellite imagery of Gaza in October 2025 bear no resemblance to those prior to October 2023.

But Gaza Living Story is about visualising what was, what is and what can still be.

The more Palestinians who contribute, the most comprehensive the archive will be. Moreover, as Gaza Living Story grows it will provide an increasingly complete platform for a vision of Gaza's future rooted in the soul-filled memories of a past that won't be lost.

Please share the Gaza Living Story visioning campaign widely.