War in Gaza: Past devastation, unprecedented present, unthinkable future by Christopher Salas

This visualization tells a devastating and urgent story through data: the catastrophic toll of Israel’s invasion of Gaza following the Israel–Hamas war that began in October 2023. It highlights how this war has become the deadliest chapter in Palestinian modern history, surpassing even the horrors of the 1947–1949 Nakba.

I created this piece to address the lack of accessible information on the scale of Palestinian civilian casualties and to challenge the growing denial that a genocide is unfolding in Gaza*. Through historical data comparisons, this project seeks to illustrate the magnitude of today’s crisis and its potential to escalate further.

The first two sections present a comparative visual narrative of Palestinian civilian deaths. The first illustrates how the Nakba—long considered the deadliest period in Palestinian history—resulted in approximately 11,047 civilian deaths. The second shows how the ongoing war in Gaza has already surpassed this, with over 46,194 lives lost as of December 2024, making it the deadliest period for Palestinians in modern history.

For the data visualization, I chose the watermelon—a potent symbol of Palestinian resistance. Its colors mirror the Palestinian flag, which was banned in the occupied territories after the 1967 war. In response, sliced watermelons became a peaceful act of defiance.

The third section moves from the present to a projection of the future, visualizing estimates from The Lancet’s article, “Counting the dead in Gaza: difficult but essential.” The study suggests that for every direct death in Gaza, up to four indirect deaths may follow due to disease, starvation, and the collapse of infrastructure. If these estimates hold, the current war could result in more than 186,000 indirect deaths—8% of Gaza’s total population.

The final poster breaks this statistic down on a human scale: 8 out of every 100 Gazans could lose their lives, even without direct military action.

*Various observers, including the UN Special Committee to investigate Israeli practices and the UN Special Rapporteur, have cited statements by senior Israeli officials that may indicate an "intent to destroy" Gaza's population, a necessary condition for the legal threshold of genocide to be met.