A City's Grief in One Street

Unless it has happened to you, I guess it is impossible to truly understand what it’s like to have your home destroyed. How, then, can news organizations convey the tragedy of such loss to a public that seems increasingly immune to the horrors of Israel’s atrocities in Gaza?

In 2023, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) created an interactive 3D model of an apartment block in Gaza that was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in 2021. Using photogrammetry, the ICRC allows users to virtually experience the civilian cost of the Israeli attacks on Gaza through a detailed digital reconstruction.

The ability to explore in detail 3D models of the wreckage caused to people’s homes and lives by military attacks provides a shocking insight into the consequences of war - an insight that, hopefully, most readers will never have to experience firsthand.

 

The Islamic University of Gaza - in 2023 and now

Eighteen months later, The Guardian has published a powerful report on the devastation to buildings and lives along a single street in Gaza. 'A street in Gaza, a map of dreams, and the people desperate to live' takes a close-up look at Gaza City’s main thoroughfare, Omar al-Mukhtar Street, aiming to show the universal through the particular.

The Guardian’s report begins with a story map, using satellite imagery to reveal the rubble surrounding the street. As you scroll, the map pans and zooms to various locations in the neighborhood. Before-and-after videos and imagery help explore the damage at key sites and communicate the profound sense of loss felt by the street’s residents.

By focusing on a single street, The Guardian’s report makes the vast and often overwhelming devastation in Gaza more tangible and intimate. Omar al-Mukhtar street becomes a microcosm of the wider destruction, allowing readers to connect personally with individual stories, shattered homes, and interrupted lives. This granular approach transforms data and statistics into human experiences, making the emotional cost of war harder to ignore.