Eyes on Gaza project

The Wikimedians of Kuwait User Group, that one of the newly formed groups within the Arab community, has launched the “Eyes on Gaza” project, under the direct management of the group’s founder and director Rotana, and other active group member “Salam” with a team of volunteer photographers and artists from the Gaza Strip.

The group leads this initiative, driven by its strong belief in the importance of documenting the war waged on the Gaza Strip from October 2023 to January 2025. This project focuses on preserving historical evidence by capturing significant landmarks and events that occurred during the conflict. It includes a collection of photographs taken by participating users, utilizing their phones or cameras to document the realities on the ground. Through this effort, the initiative aims to ensure that these critical moments are archived and accessible for future generations.

The Outcomes

More than 1,550 photos have been uploaded to Wikimedia Commons so far, as the project began on January 25, 2025, and will continue until April 2025. Participants have captured and documented numerous locations in the Gaza Strip that were destroyed during the recent war, including buildings, streets, homes, and entire neighborhoods. Many of these images were taken as they moved through these areas during their displacement from the north to the south, providing a firsthand visual record of the devastation and its impact on the region.

Forced displacement

The photos documented the journey of the people of the Strip during forced displacement, where they were compelled to leave their homes and take some of their belongings with them in order to live in tents.

Return journey

The return journey is captured through a compelling series of photos that document every step of the participants’ path back to their once-familiar, now-destroyed homes. These images not only record the physical ruins but also convey the emotional weight of rediscovery and loss as families retrace their steps through neighborhoods transformed by conflict.

Food

Their food also had a share in these photos, as part of the simple foods that people ate during the war was documented. Some photos documented the people’s struggle in preparing food, as they used handcrafted equipment to prepare meals with only the ingredients available in the tents.

Children of Gaza

There are also images of children inside the Strip, reflecting the suffering they endure and how their childhood has been stolen from them. Instead of seeing a child playing at school, you will see a picture of a child selling food or bringing food to their family.

Lifestyle During Gaza war

The photos also documented the lifestyle of the people in the Strip during the war, capturing how children would go out to fetch food, the types of tents they lived in, the available means of transportation, and other features of their painful life.

Airstrikes and effects of bombing

We were also able to document some air strikes that rocked the Strip, along with photos depicting the extensive damage sustained by buildings, schools, places of worship, hospitals, and neighborhoods.

Difficulties

The users participating in this project faced many problems while working on the project, as they did not have internet access most of the time, and they did not have electricity for many days to charge their phones and devices used in the project. They had to transport to other parts of the city in order to find houses or stores that have solar panels due the consecutive and repetitive outage of electricity during the war. These young people contributed to transmitting the live image from Gaza to the world despite these difficult circumstances, and their efforts are evident in this project.

For now, the team will continue uploading images of winter in the Strip, as well as photos of Ramadan and the food of Ramadan this year, so that everyone can see what is happening inside the Strip—because pictures do not lie and will never lie.