Posters with the Israelis kidnapped by Hamas, pasted on the streets of Bucharest

The faces of the hostages in Gaza Strip appear on billboards, from New York to Bucharest. It’s a global movement to raise awareness of the plight of the 199 people that Hamas terrorists kidnapped and are holding captive in Gaza.

In several cities in the United States and in Europe, including in the capital of Romania, the hostages’ photos are displayed in public places, as visible as possible.

For 13 days since Hamas kidnapped them, the families no longer know anything about the 199 hostages. Among them are children, even a 9-month-old baby, but also 85-year-olds.

The posters are captioned in white on a red background “KIDNAPPED” and then on each are placed photos and details of the abductees, a different person or family on each poster.

“On October 7, 2023, nearly 200 innocent civilians were kidnapped from Israel and taken prisoner to the Gaza Strip. Even up to this moment, it is not known where they are being held.More than 3,000 people (women, men and children, aged between 3 months and 85 years) were injured, killed, beaten, raped and brutally separated from their families by Hamas,” the posters read.

The ad also comes with a message “Please help us bring them back to life“, a hashtag #KidnappedFromIsrael and a qrcode with a link to the website kidnappedfromisrael.com

All the stories and photos of those kidnapped by Hamas are published on that website. About the project it is written that “The posters were created by a small group of Israelis based in New York City, led by artists Nitzan Mintz and Dede Bandaid, and designed by Tal Huber in partnership with Shira Gershoni.”

“Artists in Tel Aviv, who witnessed the horrors of this war unfold while away from their friends and families in Israel, decided to take immediate action. This campaign is unfunded and has now become one of the most widespread pieces of public guerrilla art in history as it continues to spread with new poster images appearing on the streets, in train stations, in universities, at protests and beyond,” says the website.

The armed conflict between Israel and the Islamist organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip has entered its 13th day. So far, official reports confirm that around 1,400 Israelis and around 3,500 Palestinians have been killed.