An interfaith coalition has unveiled a 100-metre memorial shroud bearing the handwritten names of more than 20,000 Palestinian children killed by Israel in Gaza, displaying the installation at the UN Church Centre in New York.
"Not a number, but a name," organisers emphasised, explaining that the project aims to restore individual identity to every young person killed in the besieged enclave, whilst demanding an immediate end to Israeli genocide and establishing legal accountability for alleged war crimes.
Doctors Against Genocide, Priests Against Genocide USA, Justice for All, and affiliated civil society partner groups organised the Gaza Children's Shroud memorial.
Interfaith gathering
The memorial ceremony at the UN Church Centre featured the recitation of the Holy Quran and an interfaith service deliberately timed to coincide with the opening high-level sessions of the United Nations General Assembly.
The initiative draws direct inspiration from an Italian memorial originally created in Rome by Pastors Against Genocide.
That project was spurred by the practice documented across Gaza of parents writing their children's names directly onto their skin to ensure proper identification if their homes were hit in bombardment.
Following its public unveiling at Philadelphia City Hall on September 1, the travelling exhibition is scheduled to move to Washington in October before visiting a new city each month as part of a year-long international awareness campaign.
Israeli genocidal war has killed more than 20,000 children and wounded another 44,000 across Gaza since October 2023, according to United Nations assessments.
