Wall of Tears in New York documents the names of 18,000 children martyred in Gaza

In the heart of New York City, the 'Wall of Tears' stretches along a Brooklyn street, bearing the names of 18,457 Palestinian children killed by Israel in the Gaza Strip over the past two years, specifically between October 7, 2023, and July 19, 2025. The mural, unveiled on Thursday, was designed by American artist Phil Buehler, who arranged the names of the victims chronologically according to their deaths, based on data from the Gaza Ministry of Health, accompanied by individual photos and stories about them.

The mural begins with the name of the boy Wissam Iyad Mohammed Abu Fsaifes (14 years old) and ends with the girl Sabah Omar Saad Al-Masri (8 years old), and between them are thousands of children killed by Israel up to July 2025. However, the mural excludes victims who fell after that date, due to the last update of the health authorities' database in Gaza at that time.

The ivory-colored mural is 50 feet long and 10 feet wide, made of waterproof vinyl coated with a UV protective material, and was executed by the artist in collaboration with the organization 'Radio Free Brooklyn'.

Buehler, 69, said in press statements: 'This is perhaps one of the most emotionally difficult works I have ever done. I always remember Stalin's saying: The death of one person is a tragedy, and the death of a million people is just a statistic. People may sympathize with the suffering of one person, but they quickly ignore or drown in a sea of suffering in the face of thousands of victims. The destruction and death in Gaza are a prime example of this.'

He added: 'I hope that through this artwork you can realize the magnitude of the tragedy of 18,457 children dying, by seeing their names stretch 50 feet along the street, and that you will sympathize with their surviving families.' The artist noted that from a distance, the artwork looks like an abstract painting that attracts people, before they discover that they are the names of children killed in Gaza.

Buehler continued: 'You will be more drawn to seeing the faces and reading some of their stories that I distributed along the wall. This is what truly affects me; you see these faces full of joy and hope, snapshots from graduations and birthdays, and you know that the lives of these children ended suddenly.'

The artist launched his mural coinciding with the second anniversary of the death of Hind Rajab, the five-year-old girl who was left to bleed to death among the bodies of six of her family members, after an Israeli tank targeted their car with 335 bullets, according to the research group 'Forensic Architecture'.

It is worth noting that Buehler previously designed massive murals including the 'Wall of Lies' which displayed President Donald Trump's lies during his first term, and the 'Wall of Shame' which documents the events of the January 6 Capitol attack, in addition to a work addressing the issue of Ukrainian children.