These posters line nearly every corner of New York City.
The faces of hundreds of Israelis kidnapped by Hamas, some as young as 9 months old.
Israeli citizens Nitzan Mintz and Dede Bandaid arrived in New York for a three-month artist residency in September.
“We know some of the people’s families, I love them actually,” Mintz said. “There is no one Israeli that doesn’t know someone today. The entire Jewish community got hit traumatically.”
About halfway through their stay, they heard troubling news from home.
“My parents [are] saying that the entire country is, like, full with rockets all over the place, like falling from the sky,” Mintz said.
The pair felt helpless being hundreds of miles away.
So they decided to use their talents to put a face to the hundreds affected by the conflict.
“They have to see their eyes to understand it’s real persons” Bandaid said.
On the first day of the project, they printed 2,000 missing person posters and found many people hesitant to interact with the art.
“People were very suspicious, they didn’t even want to come close and read it,” Bandaid said. “They didn’t want anything to do with us.”
Disappointed but determined, they uploaded the posters to a website, kidnappedfromisrael.com and immediately noticed a shift.
“The next day was completely different, when we woke up, the streets of Manhattan were filled with posters,” Bandaid said.
Soon they noticed it wasn’t just New York taking part.
“it has spread not just to other cities in the U.S. but worldwide,” said Bandaid. “It got to Europe, the far East, [and] to South America.”
The pair estimate some 45,000 posters are downloaded a day.
It’s their hope that with the world’s help these missing Israelis may be able to come home safe and sound.