18,430 children have been killed in Gaza since October 2023 – that’s an average of 28 children a day – the size of a classroom.
The bustling heart of Leeds will become a place of mourning on Saturday 23rd August as thousands are expected to gather to remember Gaza’s children – victims of a war that has shocked the world.
From 9am to 6pm, Briggate will be transformed into a vast open-air memorial where the names of young lives lost will be read aloud, one by one, in a haunting roll call of innocence destroyed.
Organised by a women-led group, the event comes as the United Nations confirms that more than 18,430 children have been killed in Gaza since October 2023. That’s 28 children every single day – a full classroom wiped out daily.
“This is brutal and heartbreaking,” said Ed Carlisle, Green Party councillor for Hunslet and Riverside.
“Israel’s actions long ago lost any pretence of proportionate response. It’s hard to know what to do, but we can at least recognise and honour the innocent lives lost – and perhaps together, from a place of mourning, reach for a just and cooperative future.”
Volunteers will spend the day reading aloud the names of the dead – a solemn act to ensure each child is remembered not as a number, but as a life, a face, a future stolen.
Retired priest Reverend Canon Kathryn Fitzsimons added: “With such profound loss, numbers can feel overwhelming. This memorial is a sacred refusal to let these children vanish into statistics. By speaking their names, we hold them and their families in our hearts.”
For organisers, the memorial is not only about grief but about unity – giving the people of Leeds a space to stand together in compassion, in outrage, and in hope.
The event is part of a growing wave of remembrance across Yorkshire, with Bradford and Huddersfield set to host similar memorials.
