Children of Nakba Day These photographs

Children of Nakba Day

These photographs were taken on May 15, 2025, during a Nakba Day gathering in Beirut, Lebanon.

Below the hill, Palestinian activists, refugees, and Hezbollah supporters stood shoulder to shoulder, delivering speeches filled with grief, defiance, and memories of a conflict that has shaped generations. Flags waved above the crowd as speakers vowed solidarity and resistance.

Yet a short walk away, the atmosphere felt entirely different.

There, I met children.

Their clothes were worn. Some carried the visible marks of hardship. Many had grown up surrounded by stories of displacement, war, and loss. Yet what stayed with me was not anger, but curiosity. They gathered around me, asking where I came from. Using a translation app, we struggled through fragments of conversation, laughing at misunderstandings and finding small ways to connect.

They waved Palestinian flags just like the adults below. But unlike the speeches echoing through the crowd, their faces still carried something unmistakably childlike: wonder, playfulness, and hope.

As a writer and documentary photographer, I am often drawn to places defined by conflict. What interests me, however, is not only the conflict itself, but the ordinary human moments that continue to exist within it. These children reminded me that even in communities shaped by historical trauma, life does not pause. Childhood persists.

For a brief moment, above the chants and politics, they were simply children smiling at a stranger with a camera.