More than 69,000 people have been killed in Gaza between October of 2023 and August 2025, amongst them over 20,000 children – or averaging 28 children every day (the equivalent of an entire classroom), due to the incessant Israeli bombardment and its blockade of needed humanitarian assistance. These numbers are only estimates; the true number of deaths is likely much higher as thousands of people lie unaccounted for under the rubble.

What is happening in Gaza is not just a tragedy but a crime. Entire families have been killed, so-called safe places continue to be bombed, children are orphaned, people of all ages left with traumatic injuries. Every day, people die, suffer, and lose their loved ones. The mass displacement, forced starvation, healthcare collapse, limited access to basic necessities, and daily massacres amount to an incredibly dire, human-caused disaster.

In the face of this deliberately engineered genocide, we ask ourselves: how do we respond; what can we do?

Santa Fe Witnessing for Gaza is a refusal to become numb, a space for collective witnessing. Names of people who have died from October 1st 2023 through August 2025 will be read. Numbers become actual names. The reading of these names is estimated to take 120 hours, or five days and five nights.

This event is not a political demonstration, nor is it a commemoration. There won’t be flowers, flags, nor political statements or slogans. Bearing witness is central. We read because we refuse to stand by in silence; we read because we do not accept the atrocities enacted by the Israeli government; we read because we take a stance against the complicity of the US government; we read because we grieve.

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