What do you think?
Rate this book
Une mémoire de l'anéantissement: Les Gazaoui.e.s racontent
« Devant celles et ceux qui ont survécu au génocide, je veux essayer de comprendre cette douleur, depuis ce que je suis, une écrivaine pour qui les mots et la narration sont une manière d’exprimer de la compassion, une tentative d’apporter du changement, qui essaie de comprendre ce monde terrible qui nous entoure et de réfléchir à un avenir meilleur pour l’humanité. » Tout au long de l’année 2024, Samar Yazbek s’est entretenue avec des centaines de survivants gazaouis évacués au Qatar pour des raisons médicales. À chacun, elle a posé cette question : Que faisiez-vous le 7 octobre 2023 ? En donnant ainsi la parole à celles et ceux que le monde n’entend pas, l’écrivaine a retenu 26 témoignages rédigés à la première personne, 26 récits de ce que l’histoire retiendra peut-être comme l’une des guerres d’extermination les plus sauvages de notre époque, afin que leurs voix résonnent et que le monde les écoute. Traduit de l’arabe (Syrie) par Sarah Rolfo
322 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 18, 2026
About the author
Samar Yazbek
31 books252 followers- Syrian writer
- born in Jableh city, 1970
- published her first stories collection in 1999
- wrote many scripts for movies and TV series while working in the Syrian state TV, and she produced and presented the show of "Library Story" in 2008
- worked in Al-Hayat newspaper for 10 years, and published in many Syrian and Arab newspapers
- published four novels, and three books
- her A Woman in The Crossfire was translated into five languages
- co-founded in 2012 "Women NOW" development organization that is concerned with educational and economical empowerment of women and children
- born in Jableh city, 1970
- published her first stories collection in 1999
- wrote many scripts for movies and TV series while working in the Syrian state TV, and she produced and presented the show of "Library Story" in 2008
- worked in Al-Hayat newspaper for 10 years, and published in many Syrian and Arab newspapers
- published four novels, and three books
- her A Woman in The Crossfire was translated into five languages
- co-founded in 2012 "Women NOW" development organization that is concerned with educational and economical empowerment of women and children
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews
November 20, 2025
This book should be mandatory in the name of humanity. Heartbreaking. Nobody with a hunch of human empathy will be able to read this without being utterly shocked.
Free Palestine 🇵🇸
Free Palestine 🇵🇸
Read
June 14, 2026“The people of Gaza don’t need our pity, but our acknowledgment of their bravery, their dignity and their rights, and their urgent wish to disciple the truth of their tragedy.”
“You need to be insane to imagine it, then believe it.”
Arguably one of the hardest books I’ve ever read while also being one of the most important books I’ve ever read.
“You need to be insane to imagine it, then believe it.”
Arguably one of the hardest books I’ve ever read while also being one of the most important books I’ve ever read.
March 6, 2026
Es sind so viele Tage vergangen, so viele Wochen, Monate und Jahre. Und der Gen0z|d geht immer noch weiter, immer noch im vollen Gange. Das ist es vor allem was mich bei dieser bedrückenden Lektüre immer wieder fassungslos gemacht hat. Dass sich an der Situation bis heute nichts geändert hat.
Wir haben über Livestreams die vielen Hundert Mass4ker mitbekommen, wir haben sie miterlebt. Und ich frage mich immer wieder wie das sein kann. Wie kann es sein, dass die Welt trotzdem still geblieben ist? Ich frage mich ob wir das Menschsein abgelegt haben. Berührt uns das T0ten eines anderen Menschen wirklich nicht mehr?
Das Buch „Gaza. Überlebensberichte aus einem zerstörten Land“ ist wahrlich keine einfache Lektüre. Es erzählt Geschichten aus verschiedenen Perspektiven. Von Müttern, von Vätern, von Ärzten und von Verwundeten und von vielen weiteren Menschen. Es zeigt wie sie das Leben seit dem 7. Oktober 2023 erlebt haben und wie sich ihre Lage verändert hat.
Vieles davon hat man über verschiedene Accounts in den sozialen Medien erfahren. Oft hat man nur einen Bruchteil der Aufnahmen wahrgenommen oder ist mit den Bildern allein geblieben. Doch dieses Buch geht weiter. Es erzählt die Überlebensgeschichten der Menschen die hinter den Bildern weitergelebt haben.
Die Autorin Samar Yazbek hat die 27 Berichte unglaublich gut in einem Band zusammengebracht. Damit die Überlebenden über ihr Schicksal berichten können und damit sie als Menschen ihre Würde bewahren können. Die Würde die ihnen vor und während des Gen0z|ds genommen wurde.
Ein besonderer Dank geht an die beiden Übersetzenden Larissa Bender und Leonie Nückell. Sie haben uns die Möglichkeit gegeben dass wir diese wichtigen Berichte lesen können. Die Überlebenden haben dadurch eine weitere Sprache bekommen, damit ihre Geschichten in verschiedenen Teilen der Welt gehört und weitergetragen werden.
Für mich ist dieses Buch eine Pflichtlektüre. Es ist sehr einfach und verständlich geschrieben, die Kapitel sind klar gegliedert und leicht zu durchschauen. Was mich besonders berührt hat: Die Autorin legt großen Wert darauf, die verschiedenen Perspektiven zu schildern und dabei die Identität der Menschen zu schützen.
Wir haben über Livestreams die vielen Hundert Mass4ker mitbekommen, wir haben sie miterlebt. Und ich frage mich immer wieder wie das sein kann. Wie kann es sein, dass die Welt trotzdem still geblieben ist? Ich frage mich ob wir das Menschsein abgelegt haben. Berührt uns das T0ten eines anderen Menschen wirklich nicht mehr?
Das Buch „Gaza. Überlebensberichte aus einem zerstörten Land“ ist wahrlich keine einfache Lektüre. Es erzählt Geschichten aus verschiedenen Perspektiven. Von Müttern, von Vätern, von Ärzten und von Verwundeten und von vielen weiteren Menschen. Es zeigt wie sie das Leben seit dem 7. Oktober 2023 erlebt haben und wie sich ihre Lage verändert hat.
Vieles davon hat man über verschiedene Accounts in den sozialen Medien erfahren. Oft hat man nur einen Bruchteil der Aufnahmen wahrgenommen oder ist mit den Bildern allein geblieben. Doch dieses Buch geht weiter. Es erzählt die Überlebensgeschichten der Menschen die hinter den Bildern weitergelebt haben.
Die Autorin Samar Yazbek hat die 27 Berichte unglaublich gut in einem Band zusammengebracht. Damit die Überlebenden über ihr Schicksal berichten können und damit sie als Menschen ihre Würde bewahren können. Die Würde die ihnen vor und während des Gen0z|ds genommen wurde.
Ein besonderer Dank geht an die beiden Übersetzenden Larissa Bender und Leonie Nückell. Sie haben uns die Möglichkeit gegeben dass wir diese wichtigen Berichte lesen können. Die Überlebenden haben dadurch eine weitere Sprache bekommen, damit ihre Geschichten in verschiedenen Teilen der Welt gehört und weitergetragen werden.
Für mich ist dieses Buch eine Pflichtlektüre. Es ist sehr einfach und verständlich geschrieben, die Kapitel sind klar gegliedert und leicht zu durchschauen. Was mich besonders berührt hat: Die Autorin legt großen Wert darauf, die verschiedenen Perspektiven zu schildern und dabei die Identität der Menschen zu schützen.
August 18, 2026
brutal read
October 31, 2026
They don’t put a weapon down, unless they have used it.
And then there are all the things that cannot be spoken.
August 19, 2026
You may close this book, but you cannot close yourself off from what you have witnessed. Their words demand to be carried and shared. Truly one of the hardest books I have ever read, and certainly, ever will read.
“For over seventy years, everyone has abandoned us”
“For over seventy years, everyone has abandoned us”
October 9, 2026
Furchtbar, aber furchtbar wichtig.
September 4, 2026
You can’t begin to comprehend the extent of the suffering in Gaza. Whatever you believe is happening is far more severe.
July 4, 2026
“Narrative permits us, if not understand what happened, then at least to acknowledge the agony of the victims, to acknowledge human horror in all its forms.” - Samar Yazbek
“When will Palestinians be recognised as fully human by those who have it in their power to stop this genocide?” -Leri Price
This book translated from Arabic, originally written by Samar Yazbek, who collected testimonies from 26 survivors, with ages ranging from 13 to 65 years old. This was such a heartbreaking read and a vital read for all. Initially I didn’t want to rate this book, like how do you rate suffering?! But, I want this book to be known and read by all, hence decided to rate it.
Everyone please READ this book.
“When will Palestinians be recognised as fully human by those who have it in their power to stop this genocide?” -Leri Price
This book translated from Arabic, originally written by Samar Yazbek, who collected testimonies from 26 survivors, with ages ranging from 13 to 65 years old. This was such a heartbreaking read and a vital read for all. Initially I didn’t want to rate this book, like how do you rate suffering?! But, I want this book to be known and read by all, hence decided to rate it.
Everyone please READ this book.
July 10, 2026
This book took me long to get through, not because it was anything short of engaging and well-translated but because it was just so devastating. I cried on the airplane while reading this and decided I can only read about four chapters a day. The depth of Israel’s inhumane actions is staggering.
October 1, 2026
Your Presence Is a Danger to Your Life by Samar Yazbek
This is one of those books I had to read in small bites.
Yazbek brings together the testimonies of Palestinians in Gaza, and while every person has their own story, the stories begin to blur together in the most heartbreaking way. The same fear. The same running. The same searching for family. The same loss. And again and again, that feeling that there is nowhere safe to go.
What stayed with me most weren’t even the descriptions of the bombing. It was the little things.
No clean water. No enough food. Living in miserable displacement camps. Trying to survive without the most basic necessities. One young girl wearing the same outfit for months.
Months.
That detail broke me.
Because suddenly you’re not thinking about numbers or headlines. You’re thinking about a girl who should have had a closet full of ordinary clothes, who should have been worrying about school or friends or what she was going to wear tomorrow. Instead, she was wearing the same clothes because her entire normal life had been taken away.
The testimonies also make clear that this was not simply the kind of bombing many of these people had already experienced. They describe something different in its scale and intensity, followed by displacement and conditions that made survival itself a daily struggle.
And there is something devastating about the repetition. You finish one person’s story and begin another, knowing you’re going to hear another version of the same nightmare. Yet you never become numb because each person has a face, a family, a memory, a home they lost.
I kept thinking about how easily we talk about war in numbers. Thousands. Tens of thousands. Millions displaced. But this book makes you stop and think about one person.
One girl.
One outfit.
One family looking for somewhere safe.
One person who hasn’t had clean water.
One person who doesn’t know if they will ever go home.
This was an incredibly emotional book for me. I couldn’t rush through it. I had to put it down, breathe, and come back to it.
And maybe that’s exactly what this book asks of the reader: don’t look away just because it’s painful.
Read the stories. Remember the people.
Some books inform you.
This one stays with you.
This is one of those books I had to read in small bites.
Yazbek brings together the testimonies of Palestinians in Gaza, and while every person has their own story, the stories begin to blur together in the most heartbreaking way. The same fear. The same running. The same searching for family. The same loss. And again and again, that feeling that there is nowhere safe to go.
What stayed with me most weren’t even the descriptions of the bombing. It was the little things.
No clean water. No enough food. Living in miserable displacement camps. Trying to survive without the most basic necessities. One young girl wearing the same outfit for months.
Months.
That detail broke me.
Because suddenly you’re not thinking about numbers or headlines. You’re thinking about a girl who should have had a closet full of ordinary clothes, who should have been worrying about school or friends or what she was going to wear tomorrow. Instead, she was wearing the same clothes because her entire normal life had been taken away.
The testimonies also make clear that this was not simply the kind of bombing many of these people had already experienced. They describe something different in its scale and intensity, followed by displacement and conditions that made survival itself a daily struggle.
And there is something devastating about the repetition. You finish one person’s story and begin another, knowing you’re going to hear another version of the same nightmare. Yet you never become numb because each person has a face, a family, a memory, a home they lost.
I kept thinking about how easily we talk about war in numbers. Thousands. Tens of thousands. Millions displaced. But this book makes you stop and think about one person.
One girl.
One outfit.
One family looking for somewhere safe.
One person who hasn’t had clean water.
One person who doesn’t know if they will ever go home.
This was an incredibly emotional book for me. I couldn’t rush through it. I had to put it down, breathe, and come back to it.
And maybe that’s exactly what this book asks of the reader: don’t look away just because it’s painful.
Read the stories. Remember the people.
Some books inform you.
This one stays with you.
October 8, 2026
this nonfic book must be a treasured and preserved piece of history. Account after account of horror Palestinians have endured over the past 3 years in Gaza and beyond. There were many times I lost my appetite, had to put the book down and come back to it intentionally at a later time…and there were moments where I felt so overwhelmed by all of the suffering. But the very LEAST we can do is endure listening to the horrors of what each different person went through. This book will stay with me forever.
September 5, 2026
- ***The people of Gaza don't need our pity, but our acknowledgement of their bravery, their dignity and their rights, and their urgent wish to disclose the truth of their tragedy.*** p.18 YPDTY
Com Aleksiévitx, Yazbek du a terme un valuosíssim exercici d'una nova manera d'historiar: aquella on s'opta per l'aglomeració de veus, d'experiències, per a imaginar la immanència d'un esdeveniment, que s'oposa a l'avorrida, monòtona i indiferent història de les dates, els homes i la racionalització causa-efecte dels esdeveniments. De fet, Yazbek s'ubica clarament del cantó d'Aleksiévitx, aquí, en la cerca d'una nova manera d'historiar:
- ***For years, I have been attempting and thinking of new ways to rewrite and reinforce stories of the people and places we have come from. It is an attempt at reconstruction, extending beyond literature and documentation to reveal a different narrative, one that explores the pain and overwhelming catastrophe in our world. Now more than ever, this devastation writes our world in its own way: in pictures and numbers which erase it from humanity's collective conscience, turning it into a momentary consumer product and causing fundamental meanings to disappear within the fetid decay of the immediate moment.*** p.14 YPDTY
En aquest sentit, la intensitat, la honestedat i els silencis de Yazbek i els palestins s'oposen a la reducció del genocidi al format notícia: des d'un punt de vista benjaminià, a la seva transformació —involuntària?— de l'experiència viscuda a un producte de consum mediatitzat per la televisió i la llunyania assèptica implícita de la imatge i les xifres.
- ***Life consists of a collection of experiences, and the same thing applies, if not more so, to violence. When these experiences of exceptional violence are not gathered together in a cohesive story, they evade us. Just as the limbs scattered in Gaza testify to the annihilation of the body, the absence of a narration of violence as it is lived on a personal level accomplishes the annihilation of people. Like the Palestinians who desperately strive to collect the scattered parts of their loved ones in order to reconstruct them, there is an urgent need to collect a large number of stories and experiences that will survive this slaughter, and which will lay bare for future generations a truth of what comes from violence.*** p.16 YPDTY
- ***How can we think about reviving the pain of others in an attempt to stop it recurring? How can we think of the future, when a person's erased life is not reassembled, in word and deed, until we think about justice for them, about filling in their outlines? We do this, perhaps, through bringing their memories to life, making them rebels against the discourses that reduce them to cumulative statistics, tryint to extract their humanity from the objectification manufactured by the machinery of express consumerist media.*** p.17 YPDTY
La qüestió és, precisament, la de lluitar contra l'oblit de les vides que participen d'esdeveniments històrics, en favor de relats trascendents capaços de reduir la història de pobles sencers a dates, xifres i alguns noms selectes. Concretament es lluita, doncs, contra **l'esborrat**,que és més present que mai en l'acte genocida:
- ***How can I enquire into the act of erasing people, of erasing stone? The narration of genocide relies fundamentally on this act, and erasure is in itself one of the forms of its permanence, its power and consummation —in the sense of its dominance, in the sense of our inability to communicate with it. This erasure is apparent in every aspect of genocide: the erasure of dismembered bodies; the erasure of our ability to see clearly; the erasure of the profound act of bearing witness to the agony of others; the erasure of language. Erasure here is absolute, and we can only think of it as a primary material in the reassamblage of these scattered bodies.*** p.15 YPDTY
Per a Yazbek, es tracta aquests testimonis operin una disrupció en les vides: es tracta de provocar l'escàndol que és, sense edulcorar, que se'ns quedi encallat a la gola, impossible de digerir, per sempre veient aquests mitjos cossos, cossos decapitats, cossos sense extremitats, budells i òrgans dispersos, cossos apilats.
- ***I was running, people all around were running, and while we were running, we saw wreckage, dead people, human body parts scattered everywhere. We no longer saw bodies or heaped clusters, but organs, guts, limbs. I saw some living people too —yes, I saw people who were injured but still had a spark of life. I still remember their faces, children, women, flung here and there. I saw heads, hands, legs; I saw half-bodies, quarter-bodies; I saw bodies opened up like an atlas of anatomy.*** p.233 YPDTY
Com diu Butler, l'època contemporània es caracteritza per la ubiqüitat de les càmeres i per la possibilitat de capturar el moment en imatge o vídeo; per contra, què es graba, com és editat i com es presenta forma part, sempre, de la batalla per adquirir un o altre significat. En el cas de les televisions públiques, diria que s'ha optat per reduir l'escàndol mostrant-nos primordialment imatges de destrucció material, alguna imatge d'un gazià sencer fugint, però mai l'autèntica barbàrie de l'exèrcit d'Israel. A part d'això, clar, hi ha el fet que l'exèrcit genocida ha dirigit sistemàticament els seus esforços a l'eliminació d'aquests ulls ubiqus: tant els periodistes com tots els habitants que s'han atrevit a prendre imatges han estat assassinats. Aixecar el telèfon és, a Gaza, un acte de guerra contra Israel amb un càstig immediat: el del quadcòpter que persegueix, que dispara, que explota, un cop identifica el perpetrador en el tenebrós i sofisticat aparell de vigilància que té muntat Israel sobre Gaza.
Tot i que aquí falten les veus dels soldats israelís —i, com a l'hora d'escoltar les veus dels soldats nazis, o en el cas d'Alesiévitx les dels soldats russos de diferents èpoques—, doncs, ens trobem amb un fresc perfecte, sublim, del més gran dels horrors humans, el genocidi. Perquè crec que pocs, d'entre els europeus, i cap d'entre els gazians hem caigut al parany de dir que era una guerra: en les paraules dels gazians, de fet, no es deixa de trobar la seva sorpresa davant aquesta aniquil·lació, que tant es diferencia dels esdeveniments passats, 2008 o 2014.
- ***We were like animals locked in a cage, waiting to die, by whatever means. Not just from bombing, but from starvation, thirst and cold. I remember the taste of thirst was very harsh, much worse than the taste of hunger.*** p.192-3 YPDTY
El pròleg mateix de Samar és una autèntica obra d'art on se'ns parla dels límits del llenguatge, del paper del silenci a l'hora de parlar —la impossibilitat de parlar— de la més gran de les barbàries. Així,
- ***Between blood-smeared facts, it is perhaps language's transformation into silence that reveals our periodic failure to approximate atrocities. Yes: humans are capable of brutalizing each other, in ways that challenge language's very capacity of expression.*** p.14 YPDTY
Molts d'entre nosaltres hem estat testimonis dels discursos dels polítics d'Israel, del seu desig de deshumanitzar, d'animalitzar —on l'animal és essencialment inferior, des d'un punt de vista antropocèntric— el poble palestí. De fet, un genocidi és impensable sense prendre, com a punt de partida estratègic i militar, aquest punt de vista: només ignorant la "personhood" d'un vivent és possible tractar-lo com si fos un objecte, com si fos insensible o com si la seva sensibilitat fos d'un ordre inferior, com l'animal-màquina cartesià. Els gazians són animals, no deixen de dir: això atorga el dret a no dialogar amb ells i, alhora, una hipotètica superioritat essencial per a gestionar-ne les vides com es desitgi. La biopolítica israelí respecte el poble palestí es gestiona, però, amb la novetat terrorífica de la intel·ligència artificial, que hauria de posar en guàrdia a tots els pobles del món, a tots aquells qui estimen la llibertat i la vida, contra la possibilitat d'un totalitarisme vertaderament absolut.
- ***I live in Gaza which they have turned into a large prison, they have besieged us and prevented us from entering and leaving for yeras, they have killed us with their missiles for years, and this was my first time meeting them in person.*** p.46 YPDTY
L'ús dels quadcòpters ~~–~~zannanat~~–~~, de la IA, permet a més estalviar l'existència d'agents humans que es podrien sentir interpel·lats...pel rostre, à la Lévinas, del poble palestí.
- ***What cannot be imagined, however, is the unleashing of algorithms of murder, the use of artificial intelligence to kill. This perpetual human terror –of letting a machine do to a human exactly what it was built for— has been made reality in Gaza. The Israeli government has taken humanity as a whole to the threshold of this horror. They have killed using AI programmes, according to Human Rights Watch. Murder no longer requires human decision; there is no longer a moment of human hesitation before pulling the trigger. AI algorithms, built upon millions of data of death and destruction, understand perfectly when and where and how to murder Gazans. Man, with all his attendant fears and conflicting feelings, has become a gap to be closed, merely an onlooker to a crime conducted by his digital shadow. The most dangerous part is that this leve of brutality seeks not only to kill, but to subjugate. AI does not only fight bodies, but minds. It seeks to control feelings, to broadcast fear and terror into people's souls. Murder is no longer the only aim —total subjugation is.*** p.21 YPDTY
- ***The witness accounts are cut throughwith the horror of these deadly, mythical beings. They enter houses, bedrooms, stop over children's heads, issue instructions, shoot in the head, take iris scans, shoot in the eye, accompany the lines of those who are displaced and escaping bombardment and forced to leave their homes, remaining above their heads to compel them to flee.*** p.22 YPDTY
La intenció de Yazbek, doncs, és retenir en la memòria col·lectiva, escandalitzar, sacsejar un món que s'ha dedicat a les denúncies públiques i mediàtiques del genocidi, a emetre ordres de detenció internacionals que són sistemàticament ignorades, enlloc d'intervenir militarment a Gaza, d'enfrontar-se a Israel en nom de la humanitat. Així, una es demana: quina és la situació, ara mateix, a Gaza? Què m'importen els vint i sis banyistes ofegats al Mediterrani aquest estiu, quan els refugiats del món s'ofeguen als mars en la ignominia? Què són aquests Tribunals Internacionals sinó meres aparences d'un poder judicial global que s'ha demostrat una mera ombra?
- ***Perhaps, to my crushing disappointment, for all these lives I collected, believing I would defend victims who resisted death and lost pieces of their bodies and lives —perhaps I have done nothing but add a black stain to human history. A stain of words...the words of the people of Gaza.*** p.28 YPDTY
Si bé la literatura-denúncia té un gran valor...que no pot servir aquesta per a convocar cossos, per a efectuar un canvi material sobre el món, per a protegir els desemparats? Quan un gran nombre de cossos es mostren indiferents al genocidi més enllà del sentiment de "llàstima", i quan les expressions populars solidàries massives no obtenen per fruit més que denúncies públiques o sancions econòmiques, és que no ha arribat l'hora d'operar un canvi de règim? És que no ha arribat el moment d'aixecar-se? La inacció davant els genocidis televisats —recordo, ara, el dels huigur a la Xina— és la vergonya més gran de la humanitat. La ruina de Gaza és la ruina del món. Un testimoni diu:
- ***The death didn't only just begin —we have been dying for a long time.*** p.34 YPDTY
En qualsevol cas, és el llibre més dur que he llegit mai. Els testimonis dels supervivents al genocidi, d'aquells que han escapat cap a Egipte precisament degut a la seva condició mèdica crítica...són absolutament esfereidors. Un dels testimonis diu que a Gaza hi ha passat tot el que es pot imaginar, i també tot allò inimaginable. Cada escena és espantosa, és la fi d'un món, és una ferida física i psicol·lògica que durarà una vida: és la construcció sistemàtica de vides precàries, vides empobrides, vides que passen de tenir un valor infinit a, a través de la mort, la por i el terror, perdre tot valor i tot sentit. Quants de testimonis no desitgen, encara ara salvats, la mort? En un bombardeig, un testimoni diu:
- ***My uncle's wife had lost her mind: she kept saying she was scraping off the meat, removing it from the stone, she was gathering up body parts and flesh and congealed blood from among the rubble and she didn't know who any of it belong to or who each part should be returned to. She screamed. "Impossible! Impossible they've become body parts! Impossible we are dying like this!*** p.148 YPDTY
En un altre:
- ***I survived, but my heart is dead. Say that after the Baptist massacre, when my husband saw children torn to pieces and the body parts of his friends, he hoped to die, he wanted to die, he was content with his fate —he couldn't bear his life.*** p.170 YPDTY
I finalment:
- ***I was looking around but I couldn't see anything. I felt dizzy and heavy-headed; I couldn't see. After a little while, I caught sight of a hand I recognized. It belonged to one of the driver's children. I didn't see his body, just his hand at first, then I saw some of his limbs close to his hand a few metres away I saw his head lying on his stomach, and his other hand was tangled up with them. Next to that were his guts and more of his limbs. Or perhaps they belonged to someone else? It was like a distorted painting, or a toy put together at randomby a child.*** p.234 YPDTY
Com Aleksiévitx, Yazbek du a terme un valuosíssim exercici d'una nova manera d'historiar: aquella on s'opta per l'aglomeració de veus, d'experiències, per a imaginar la immanència d'un esdeveniment, que s'oposa a l'avorrida, monòtona i indiferent història de les dates, els homes i la racionalització causa-efecte dels esdeveniments. De fet, Yazbek s'ubica clarament del cantó d'Aleksiévitx, aquí, en la cerca d'una nova manera d'historiar:
- ***For years, I have been attempting and thinking of new ways to rewrite and reinforce stories of the people and places we have come from. It is an attempt at reconstruction, extending beyond literature and documentation to reveal a different narrative, one that explores the pain and overwhelming catastrophe in our world. Now more than ever, this devastation writes our world in its own way: in pictures and numbers which erase it from humanity's collective conscience, turning it into a momentary consumer product and causing fundamental meanings to disappear within the fetid decay of the immediate moment.*** p.14 YPDTY
En aquest sentit, la intensitat, la honestedat i els silencis de Yazbek i els palestins s'oposen a la reducció del genocidi al format notícia: des d'un punt de vista benjaminià, a la seva transformació —involuntària?— de l'experiència viscuda a un producte de consum mediatitzat per la televisió i la llunyania assèptica implícita de la imatge i les xifres.
- ***Life consists of a collection of experiences, and the same thing applies, if not more so, to violence. When these experiences of exceptional violence are not gathered together in a cohesive story, they evade us. Just as the limbs scattered in Gaza testify to the annihilation of the body, the absence of a narration of violence as it is lived on a personal level accomplishes the annihilation of people. Like the Palestinians who desperately strive to collect the scattered parts of their loved ones in order to reconstruct them, there is an urgent need to collect a large number of stories and experiences that will survive this slaughter, and which will lay bare for future generations a truth of what comes from violence.*** p.16 YPDTY
- ***How can we think about reviving the pain of others in an attempt to stop it recurring? How can we think of the future, when a person's erased life is not reassembled, in word and deed, until we think about justice for them, about filling in their outlines? We do this, perhaps, through bringing their memories to life, making them rebels against the discourses that reduce them to cumulative statistics, tryint to extract their humanity from the objectification manufactured by the machinery of express consumerist media.*** p.17 YPDTY
La qüestió és, precisament, la de lluitar contra l'oblit de les vides que participen d'esdeveniments històrics, en favor de relats trascendents capaços de reduir la història de pobles sencers a dates, xifres i alguns noms selectes. Concretament es lluita, doncs, contra **l'esborrat**,que és més present que mai en l'acte genocida:
- ***How can I enquire into the act of erasing people, of erasing stone? The narration of genocide relies fundamentally on this act, and erasure is in itself one of the forms of its permanence, its power and consummation —in the sense of its dominance, in the sense of our inability to communicate with it. This erasure is apparent in every aspect of genocide: the erasure of dismembered bodies; the erasure of our ability to see clearly; the erasure of the profound act of bearing witness to the agony of others; the erasure of language. Erasure here is absolute, and we can only think of it as a primary material in the reassamblage of these scattered bodies.*** p.15 YPDTY
Per a Yazbek, es tracta aquests testimonis operin una disrupció en les vides: es tracta de provocar l'escàndol que és, sense edulcorar, que se'ns quedi encallat a la gola, impossible de digerir, per sempre veient aquests mitjos cossos, cossos decapitats, cossos sense extremitats, budells i òrgans dispersos, cossos apilats.
- ***I was running, people all around were running, and while we were running, we saw wreckage, dead people, human body parts scattered everywhere. We no longer saw bodies or heaped clusters, but organs, guts, limbs. I saw some living people too —yes, I saw people who were injured but still had a spark of life. I still remember their faces, children, women, flung here and there. I saw heads, hands, legs; I saw half-bodies, quarter-bodies; I saw bodies opened up like an atlas of anatomy.*** p.233 YPDTY
Com diu Butler, l'època contemporània es caracteritza per la ubiqüitat de les càmeres i per la possibilitat de capturar el moment en imatge o vídeo; per contra, què es graba, com és editat i com es presenta forma part, sempre, de la batalla per adquirir un o altre significat. En el cas de les televisions públiques, diria que s'ha optat per reduir l'escàndol mostrant-nos primordialment imatges de destrucció material, alguna imatge d'un gazià sencer fugint, però mai l'autèntica barbàrie de l'exèrcit d'Israel. A part d'això, clar, hi ha el fet que l'exèrcit genocida ha dirigit sistemàticament els seus esforços a l'eliminació d'aquests ulls ubiqus: tant els periodistes com tots els habitants que s'han atrevit a prendre imatges han estat assassinats. Aixecar el telèfon és, a Gaza, un acte de guerra contra Israel amb un càstig immediat: el del quadcòpter que persegueix, que dispara, que explota, un cop identifica el perpetrador en el tenebrós i sofisticat aparell de vigilància que té muntat Israel sobre Gaza.
Tot i que aquí falten les veus dels soldats israelís —i, com a l'hora d'escoltar les veus dels soldats nazis, o en el cas d'Alesiévitx les dels soldats russos de diferents èpoques—, doncs, ens trobem amb un fresc perfecte, sublim, del més gran dels horrors humans, el genocidi. Perquè crec que pocs, d'entre els europeus, i cap d'entre els gazians hem caigut al parany de dir que era una guerra: en les paraules dels gazians, de fet, no es deixa de trobar la seva sorpresa davant aquesta aniquil·lació, que tant es diferencia dels esdeveniments passats, 2008 o 2014.
- ***We were like animals locked in a cage, waiting to die, by whatever means. Not just from bombing, but from starvation, thirst and cold. I remember the taste of thirst was very harsh, much worse than the taste of hunger.*** p.192-3 YPDTY
El pròleg mateix de Samar és una autèntica obra d'art on se'ns parla dels límits del llenguatge, del paper del silenci a l'hora de parlar —la impossibilitat de parlar— de la més gran de les barbàries. Així,
- ***Between blood-smeared facts, it is perhaps language's transformation into silence that reveals our periodic failure to approximate atrocities. Yes: humans are capable of brutalizing each other, in ways that challenge language's very capacity of expression.*** p.14 YPDTY
Molts d'entre nosaltres hem estat testimonis dels discursos dels polítics d'Israel, del seu desig de deshumanitzar, d'animalitzar —on l'animal és essencialment inferior, des d'un punt de vista antropocèntric— el poble palestí. De fet, un genocidi és impensable sense prendre, com a punt de partida estratègic i militar, aquest punt de vista: només ignorant la "personhood" d'un vivent és possible tractar-lo com si fos un objecte, com si fos insensible o com si la seva sensibilitat fos d'un ordre inferior, com l'animal-màquina cartesià. Els gazians són animals, no deixen de dir: això atorga el dret a no dialogar amb ells i, alhora, una hipotètica superioritat essencial per a gestionar-ne les vides com es desitgi. La biopolítica israelí respecte el poble palestí es gestiona, però, amb la novetat terrorífica de la intel·ligència artificial, que hauria de posar en guàrdia a tots els pobles del món, a tots aquells qui estimen la llibertat i la vida, contra la possibilitat d'un totalitarisme vertaderament absolut.
- ***I live in Gaza which they have turned into a large prison, they have besieged us and prevented us from entering and leaving for yeras, they have killed us with their missiles for years, and this was my first time meeting them in person.*** p.46 YPDTY
L'ús dels quadcòpters ~~–~~zannanat~~–~~, de la IA, permet a més estalviar l'existència d'agents humans que es podrien sentir interpel·lats...pel rostre, à la Lévinas, del poble palestí.
- ***What cannot be imagined, however, is the unleashing of algorithms of murder, the use of artificial intelligence to kill. This perpetual human terror –of letting a machine do to a human exactly what it was built for— has been made reality in Gaza. The Israeli government has taken humanity as a whole to the threshold of this horror. They have killed using AI programmes, according to Human Rights Watch. Murder no longer requires human decision; there is no longer a moment of human hesitation before pulling the trigger. AI algorithms, built upon millions of data of death and destruction, understand perfectly when and where and how to murder Gazans. Man, with all his attendant fears and conflicting feelings, has become a gap to be closed, merely an onlooker to a crime conducted by his digital shadow. The most dangerous part is that this leve of brutality seeks not only to kill, but to subjugate. AI does not only fight bodies, but minds. It seeks to control feelings, to broadcast fear and terror into people's souls. Murder is no longer the only aim —total subjugation is.*** p.21 YPDTY
- ***The witness accounts are cut throughwith the horror of these deadly, mythical beings. They enter houses, bedrooms, stop over children's heads, issue instructions, shoot in the head, take iris scans, shoot in the eye, accompany the lines of those who are displaced and escaping bombardment and forced to leave their homes, remaining above their heads to compel them to flee.*** p.22 YPDTY
La intenció de Yazbek, doncs, és retenir en la memòria col·lectiva, escandalitzar, sacsejar un món que s'ha dedicat a les denúncies públiques i mediàtiques del genocidi, a emetre ordres de detenció internacionals que són sistemàticament ignorades, enlloc d'intervenir militarment a Gaza, d'enfrontar-se a Israel en nom de la humanitat. Així, una es demana: quina és la situació, ara mateix, a Gaza? Què m'importen els vint i sis banyistes ofegats al Mediterrani aquest estiu, quan els refugiats del món s'ofeguen als mars en la ignominia? Què són aquests Tribunals Internacionals sinó meres aparences d'un poder judicial global que s'ha demostrat una mera ombra?
- ***Perhaps, to my crushing disappointment, for all these lives I collected, believing I would defend victims who resisted death and lost pieces of their bodies and lives —perhaps I have done nothing but add a black stain to human history. A stain of words...the words of the people of Gaza.*** p.28 YPDTY
Si bé la literatura-denúncia té un gran valor...que no pot servir aquesta per a convocar cossos, per a efectuar un canvi material sobre el món, per a protegir els desemparats? Quan un gran nombre de cossos es mostren indiferents al genocidi més enllà del sentiment de "llàstima", i quan les expressions populars solidàries massives no obtenen per fruit més que denúncies públiques o sancions econòmiques, és que no ha arribat l'hora d'operar un canvi de règim? És que no ha arribat el moment d'aixecar-se? La inacció davant els genocidis televisats —recordo, ara, el dels huigur a la Xina— és la vergonya més gran de la humanitat. La ruina de Gaza és la ruina del món. Un testimoni diu:
- ***The death didn't only just begin —we have been dying for a long time.*** p.34 YPDTY
En qualsevol cas, és el llibre més dur que he llegit mai. Els testimonis dels supervivents al genocidi, d'aquells que han escapat cap a Egipte precisament degut a la seva condició mèdica crítica...són absolutament esfereidors. Un dels testimonis diu que a Gaza hi ha passat tot el que es pot imaginar, i també tot allò inimaginable. Cada escena és espantosa, és la fi d'un món, és una ferida física i psicol·lògica que durarà una vida: és la construcció sistemàtica de vides precàries, vides empobrides, vides que passen de tenir un valor infinit a, a través de la mort, la por i el terror, perdre tot valor i tot sentit. Quants de testimonis no desitgen, encara ara salvats, la mort? En un bombardeig, un testimoni diu:
- ***My uncle's wife had lost her mind: she kept saying she was scraping off the meat, removing it from the stone, she was gathering up body parts and flesh and congealed blood from among the rubble and she didn't know who any of it belong to or who each part should be returned to. She screamed. "Impossible! Impossible they've become body parts! Impossible we are dying like this!*** p.148 YPDTY
En un altre:
- ***I survived, but my heart is dead. Say that after the Baptist massacre, when my husband saw children torn to pieces and the body parts of his friends, he hoped to die, he wanted to die, he was content with his fate —he couldn't bear his life.*** p.170 YPDTY
I finalment:
- ***I was looking around but I couldn't see anything. I felt dizzy and heavy-headed; I couldn't see. After a little while, I caught sight of a hand I recognized. It belonged to one of the driver's children. I didn't see his body, just his hand at first, then I saw some of his limbs close to his hand a few metres away I saw his head lying on his stomach, and his other hand was tangled up with them. Next to that were his guts and more of his limbs. Or perhaps they belonged to someone else? It was like a distorted painting, or a toy put together at randomby a child.*** p.234 YPDTY
September 30, 2026
Give this all the awards. Maybe the most consequential book I’ve ever read in my life. Absolutely heartbreaking.
Free Palestine. Prosecute Netanyahu.
Free Palestine. Prosecute Netanyahu.
April 16, 2026
Très difficile à lire mais ce n’est pas pour nous que c’est le plus difficile.
Livre écrit avec des témoignages ce qui le rend encore plus dur à la lecture mais qui nous montre aussi de manière cru ce qui se passe réellement.
Livre écrit avec des témoignages ce qui le rend encore plus dur à la lecture mais qui nous montre aussi de manière cru ce qui se passe réellement.
November 13, 2025
terriblement dur à lire mais nécessaire
October 13, 2026
First things first, the fact that this book only has about 80 ratings at the point that I'm writing this review is genuinely shocking to me. Of all the books on the National Book Award for Translated Fiction longlist, this was one of the easiest ones to find, not to mention one of the most topical choices. It's also published as a Fitzcarraldo here in the UK and those editions are EVERYWHERE, so really, I just don't get it. My friend and I were talking about how despite us being in exactly the spaces and amongst the demographic that would see books like this on our feeds, neither of us had heard of this from any of the bookish people we follow, even those who read broadly and deeply about Palestine.
Don't get me wrong, this is an extremely challenging read. The author has collected dozens of first-hand accounts from everyday citizens who have been injured during the bombings in Gaza during the first year of the war. Their accounts are horrifying and it's stressed several times by the author, translator, and the survivors themselves that they can't even get out the whole truth because it's just that upsetting to recount... and we're talking about entire families of 40+ people who were wiped out in a single collapsed building. The book concludes with a blank page followed by a note that space has been left for all the stories too disturbing to be told and imagining that the brutality of the genocide is even worse than what's been related by the survivors thus far? It's impossible to even conceptualize.
Beyond the scale of the destruction and the fatalities, the testimonials in Yazbek's work go into depth about the psychological warfare waged by the Israeli army across Gaza, the horrific targeting of hospitals, the disease, rot, and famine that follows survivors as they try to outrun death... it's one heartbreaking account after another after another. This isn't a book you can read in one sitting, it's the kind of work that you read slowly not only to give time and respect to each account, but also because as a reader sitting thousands of miles away, safe and sound in your own life, there's a degree of guilt and shame that you feel faced with the utter hopelessness of the survivors that makes you desperate to just *do* something, even if there's very little that you, personally, can do. To know also that that this book was published in 2023 and things have only gotten worse... I mean... it's inconceivable.
As far as this book as a selection for the NBA Translated Lit prize, I would honestly be surprised if this didn't win, even if I question why it found its place here, in the often neglected Translated lit category instead of the nonfiction category where I think this more rightly belongs. The theme of this year's longlist is best described as ~looming threats of violence and the existential dread of knowing that we are all complicit~ . After reading Your Presence is a Danger to Your Life and Karim Kattan's Eden at Dawn (a book recently translated from the French that I cannot recommend more highly) I figured that the judges would likely pick only one book that dealt directly with the plight of Palestinians and while Eden at Dawn is a beautiful, heartbreaking novel, I'm glad to see this work of memoir/non-fiction come away with a shortlist nomination. Eden at Dawn will find its audience online eventually... it centers a romance, the narrative style is lyrical and interesting, and as Josh Silver made clear in his recent novel Fruit Fly "go gay, go sad, go dark" and you've got a bestseller on your hands. The modern literary audience is ready for that kind of book... people don't want to be reminded about Gaza though... and that's why choosing Yazbek's book for the shortlist makes me really proud of this prize.
This is a book that holds out something horrible and tells us to look at it. The tragedy of Palestine's circumstances isn't a setting or an instigator for plot related violence: it IS the violence. These are real victims and they deserve to have their stories and the stories of their martyred read and remembered. It's the least we can do.
Don't get me wrong, this is an extremely challenging read. The author has collected dozens of first-hand accounts from everyday citizens who have been injured during the bombings in Gaza during the first year of the war. Their accounts are horrifying and it's stressed several times by the author, translator, and the survivors themselves that they can't even get out the whole truth because it's just that upsetting to recount... and we're talking about entire families of 40+ people who were wiped out in a single collapsed building. The book concludes with a blank page followed by a note that space has been left for all the stories too disturbing to be told and imagining that the brutality of the genocide is even worse than what's been related by the survivors thus far? It's impossible to even conceptualize.
Beyond the scale of the destruction and the fatalities, the testimonials in Yazbek's work go into depth about the psychological warfare waged by the Israeli army across Gaza, the horrific targeting of hospitals, the disease, rot, and famine that follows survivors as they try to outrun death... it's one heartbreaking account after another after another. This isn't a book you can read in one sitting, it's the kind of work that you read slowly not only to give time and respect to each account, but also because as a reader sitting thousands of miles away, safe and sound in your own life, there's a degree of guilt and shame that you feel faced with the utter hopelessness of the survivors that makes you desperate to just *do* something, even if there's very little that you, personally, can do. To know also that that this book was published in 2023 and things have only gotten worse... I mean... it's inconceivable.
As far as this book as a selection for the NBA Translated Lit prize, I would honestly be surprised if this didn't win, even if I question why it found its place here, in the often neglected Translated lit category instead of the nonfiction category where I think this more rightly belongs. The theme of this year's longlist is best described as ~looming threats of violence and the existential dread of knowing that we are all complicit~ . After reading Your Presence is a Danger to Your Life and Karim Kattan's Eden at Dawn (a book recently translated from the French that I cannot recommend more highly) I figured that the judges would likely pick only one book that dealt directly with the plight of Palestinians and while Eden at Dawn is a beautiful, heartbreaking novel, I'm glad to see this work of memoir/non-fiction come away with a shortlist nomination. Eden at Dawn will find its audience online eventually... it centers a romance, the narrative style is lyrical and interesting, and as Josh Silver made clear in his recent novel Fruit Fly "go gay, go sad, go dark" and you've got a bestseller on your hands. The modern literary audience is ready for that kind of book... people don't want to be reminded about Gaza though... and that's why choosing Yazbek's book for the shortlist makes me really proud of this prize.
This is a book that holds out something horrible and tells us to look at it. The tragedy of Palestine's circumstances isn't a setting or an instigator for plot related violence: it IS the violence. These are real victims and they deserve to have their stories and the stories of their martyred read and remembered. It's the least we can do.
September 21, 2026
Primera lectura de la longlist de los National Book Award for translated literatura y grata sorpresa. Se trata de un libro de no ficción que recoge relatos de ciudadanos palestinos que nos narran el inicio del genocidio del pueblo palestino como represalia por el ataque perpetrado por Hamas en Israel.
Se trata de un libro duro, en el que es imposible no empatizar con las víctimas. Hay relatos que estremecen el alma como el de una joven que trabajó de voluntaria en un hospital palestino y que, tras acabar su trabajo de voluntariado, acabó ingresando en el mismo hospital donde ella cuidó a enfermos. El testimonio de esa joven estudiante de enfermería que queda incapacitada por un ataque israelí me dejó en shock. A ese testimonio se unen los de los padres que vieron perder a toda su familia por los bombardeos indiscriminados. El primer testimonio, una madre que vio morir a dos de sus hijos, y cuyas hijas supervivientes perdieron sus piernas y resultaron quemadas es estremecedor. Otro testimonio que me impactó fue el de una joven que sólo quería estudiar periodismo, pero que su marido y su madre se lo impidieron y que, tras tener varias hijas, tuvo que quedarse embarazada de nuevo para que su marido tuviera el ansiado varón. Esa mujer quedó sepultada en los escombros y quedó traumada por sentir que a su madre no le importaba su vida ya que sólo buscaba a sus hermanos, los cuales fallecieron. Otro testimonio desgarrador es el de una mujer con cáncer embarazada, cuyo marido era maravilloso y sólo quería que ella estuviera bien. Ella sobrevivió, pero con muchas heridas, su marido y gran parte de su familia murió. Ella pudo dar a luz a un hijo sano, pero ahora lucha por salvar a sus hijas y recuperarse. Otro testimonio estremecedor es el del medio hombre, que perdió sus dos piernas, y que sólo quiere morir. Y destacar también el de un padre que perdió a todos sus hijos y como familia sólo le queda un nieto cuya cabeza resultó muy dañada tras los bombardeos.
Todos los testimonios coinciden en señalar que esta guerra no es como las anteriores ya que es una guerra en la que los bombardeos no tienen tregua y donde los objetivos son los civiles. Además, coinciden en señalar el trato degradante hacia los palestinos por parte de ellos soldados, que se llegan a reír de los heridos palestinos, y que incluso saquean hospitales, hacen registros en los hospitales y humillan a enfermos y médicos.
Todos los testimonios destacan la solidaridad de los médicos palestinos, que se jugaron la vida quedándose en los hospitales para atender a sus pacientes y que cuando negociaron con los judíos para poder sacar a los heridos tuvieron que sufrir ya que no les daban las ambulancias ni vehículos adecuados para salvarlos. Lo más doloroso fue leer que los propios médicos, ante la escasez de electricidad, tuvieron que escoger si salvar a los bebes que estaban en incubadoras o a los de la unidad de cuidados intensivos.
Este libro sirve para ofrecer luz a lo que está ocurriendo y a mostrar lo que ocurre en la franja de Gaza desde el punto de vista palestino.
Se trata de un libro duro, en el que es imposible no empatizar con las víctimas. Hay relatos que estremecen el alma como el de una joven que trabajó de voluntaria en un hospital palestino y que, tras acabar su trabajo de voluntariado, acabó ingresando en el mismo hospital donde ella cuidó a enfermos. El testimonio de esa joven estudiante de enfermería que queda incapacitada por un ataque israelí me dejó en shock. A ese testimonio se unen los de los padres que vieron perder a toda su familia por los bombardeos indiscriminados. El primer testimonio, una madre que vio morir a dos de sus hijos, y cuyas hijas supervivientes perdieron sus piernas y resultaron quemadas es estremecedor. Otro testimonio que me impactó fue el de una joven que sólo quería estudiar periodismo, pero que su marido y su madre se lo impidieron y que, tras tener varias hijas, tuvo que quedarse embarazada de nuevo para que su marido tuviera el ansiado varón. Esa mujer quedó sepultada en los escombros y quedó traumada por sentir que a su madre no le importaba su vida ya que sólo buscaba a sus hermanos, los cuales fallecieron. Otro testimonio desgarrador es el de una mujer con cáncer embarazada, cuyo marido era maravilloso y sólo quería que ella estuviera bien. Ella sobrevivió, pero con muchas heridas, su marido y gran parte de su familia murió. Ella pudo dar a luz a un hijo sano, pero ahora lucha por salvar a sus hijas y recuperarse. Otro testimonio estremecedor es el del medio hombre, que perdió sus dos piernas, y que sólo quiere morir. Y destacar también el de un padre que perdió a todos sus hijos y como familia sólo le queda un nieto cuya cabeza resultó muy dañada tras los bombardeos.
Todos los testimonios coinciden en señalar que esta guerra no es como las anteriores ya que es una guerra en la que los bombardeos no tienen tregua y donde los objetivos son los civiles. Además, coinciden en señalar el trato degradante hacia los palestinos por parte de ellos soldados, que se llegan a reír de los heridos palestinos, y que incluso saquean hospitales, hacen registros en los hospitales y humillan a enfermos y médicos.
Todos los testimonios destacan la solidaridad de los médicos palestinos, que se jugaron la vida quedándose en los hospitales para atender a sus pacientes y que cuando negociaron con los judíos para poder sacar a los heridos tuvieron que sufrir ya que no les daban las ambulancias ni vehículos adecuados para salvarlos. Lo más doloroso fue leer que los propios médicos, ante la escasez de electricidad, tuvieron que escoger si salvar a los bebes que estaban en incubadoras o a los de la unidad de cuidados intensivos.
Este libro sirve para ofrecer luz a lo que está ocurriendo y a mostrar lo que ocurre en la franja de Gaza desde el punto de vista palestino.
October 25, 2026
A brutal reading. More than two dozen testimonies from Palestinians in the Gaza Strip recorded by the author between March and June 2024. Going beyond numbers and statistics, these are personal stories of those experiencing genocide by Israel. So many have lost numerous family members, many more than 30. Many are now amputees of one or more limbs. Starving, forced to drink polluted waters or eat animal feed merely to survive. Forcibly displaced several times only to be bombed again. Digging family and neighbors out from under the rubble and bombed again by Israel. Schools and hospitals overflowing, even these sites are not safe, much like cultural centers, cemeteries, and every bit of civilian infrastructure has been destroyed. Reading this along with watching the documentary film "NAZA" directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor and reading "Ungrounding: The Architecture of Genocide" by Eyal Weizman puts these testimonies to a new perspective.
It's hard to read this while the Genocide continues and the feeling of demoralization is constant when faced with that facts that those with power and control only enable Israel to continue Palestinian suffering and erasure. Anyone can see for themselves the snapshots of the Genocide and struggle of resistance in Gaza if they wanted to. You can go on Google Maps and zoom down on Gaza and see the total destruction of the Gaza Strip, the makeshift tents in the ruins and sand dunes, and shadows of figures without names or stories. This book adds to the flood of information coming out of Gaza and it uplifts these nightmarish stories and names of those who survive and those brutally killed by Israel.
Sujoud Abu Halib's testimony stayed with me. Running for his life and constantly surrounded by bombardment, he was again displaced to the school in the Amal neighborhood. Israel bombed and stormed that school of displaced people. His little brother attacked by a drone and was severely injured while playing just outside. Amal is translated as "Hope," Israel bombed the School of Hope. What else is there to be said when everything including hope is attacked.
It's hard to read this while the Genocide continues and the feeling of demoralization is constant when faced with that facts that those with power and control only enable Israel to continue Palestinian suffering and erasure. Anyone can see for themselves the snapshots of the Genocide and struggle of resistance in Gaza if they wanted to. You can go on Google Maps and zoom down on Gaza and see the total destruction of the Gaza Strip, the makeshift tents in the ruins and sand dunes, and shadows of figures without names or stories. This book adds to the flood of information coming out of Gaza and it uplifts these nightmarish stories and names of those who survive and those brutally killed by Israel.
Sujoud Abu Halib's testimony stayed with me. Running for his life and constantly surrounded by bombardment, he was again displaced to the school in the Amal neighborhood. Israel bombed and stormed that school of displaced people. His little brother attacked by a drone and was severely injured while playing just outside. Amal is translated as "Hope," Israel bombed the School of Hope. What else is there to be said when everything including hope is attacked.
August 29, 2026
This is a difficult book to read because it is individual stories of survival, witnessing life in Gaza after Oct. 7 the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian People by Israel. You cannot read sentence like this from a 15 year old boy with feeling the sense of pain, etc.:
"We became just things that moved, we didn't have clothes or food or anything. In Nuseirat Camp, where we were displaced to, we were extremely thirsty, there was no water, we drank salt water and dirty water. We were prepared to drink anything to keep living There was no food either. Emaciation and weakness turned me into a different person. I forgot I was just a fifteen year old boy . . ."
Or this from the same child: "I admit it, now I only want to live like other kids, just to have a normal life."
These declarations speak plainly and cannot be ignored by decent people. Free Palestine 🇵🇸. From The River to the Sea.
"We became just things that moved, we didn't have clothes or food or anything. In Nuseirat Camp, where we were displaced to, we were extremely thirsty, there was no water, we drank salt water and dirty water. We were prepared to drink anything to keep living There was no food either. Emaciation and weakness turned me into a different person. I forgot I was just a fifteen year old boy . . ."
Or this from the same child: "I admit it, now I only want to live like other kids, just to have a normal life."
These declarations speak plainly and cannot be ignored by decent people. Free Palestine 🇵🇸. From The River to the Sea.
September 6, 2026
Dogs and cats with human blood staining their mouths. Maggots eating at the decomposing flesh of people who are still living. Quadcopters that scan irises and murder anyone who moves. Deadly technology ranging from weapons that pierce holes all over the body, to bombs with poisonous chemicals inside. IOF soldiers shooting pregnant women in the stomach, brutally beating and reopening the wounds of amputees stripped to their underwear, destroying hospital maternity wards, and staging photo ops of giving food and water only to take it away (in addition to staging photos of Hamas weapons).
These are but a few of the images and stories from this book that will stick with me for a lifetime. No matter how much I’ve absorbed from this genocide, both visually and literarily, I still constantly find myself shocked by new details. This book, sickening as it is, is a must-read.
May God liberate and heal the people of Gaza. May God forgive us all for allowing this to happen.
These are but a few of the images and stories from this book that will stick with me for a lifetime. No matter how much I’ve absorbed from this genocide, both visually and literarily, I still constantly find myself shocked by new details. This book, sickening as it is, is a must-read.
May God liberate and heal the people of Gaza. May God forgive us all for allowing this to happen.
September 23, 2026
I knew this would be a brutal read but I was not prepared for the brutality against Palestinian civilians (especially children and women b/c that’s most of the interviewees) detailed in this book
And hearing from so many survivors mentioned living through multiple wars and finding this most recent attack on Gaza at a whole different level is just heartbreaking
“Sometimes I think of my mother, who raised her brother's orphaned son after his father was martyred. I lived with my mother's grief, and we lived with death. We live in perpetual mourning, we don't know joy. We have been in a state of war for a long time. My mother is a child of war. We are the heirs of grief, the heirs of wars. We, the bearers of this legacy, are the ones being annihilated. I look at my daughter, whose skull is fractured because of the Israelis-it is insanity! I don't ask much of life. My mother inherited pain from her mother. I have inherited it from her, and I will pass it on to my daughters. We have inherited war and pain and oppression over the decades, and now we are living through genocide.”
And hearing from so many survivors mentioned living through multiple wars and finding this most recent attack on Gaza at a whole different level is just heartbreaking
“Sometimes I think of my mother, who raised her brother's orphaned son after his father was martyred. I lived with my mother's grief, and we lived with death. We live in perpetual mourning, we don't know joy. We have been in a state of war for a long time. My mother is a child of war. We are the heirs of grief, the heirs of wars. We, the bearers of this legacy, are the ones being annihilated. I look at my daughter, whose skull is fractured because of the Israelis-it is insanity! I don't ask much of life. My mother inherited pain from her mother. I have inherited it from her, and I will pass it on to my daughters. We have inherited war and pain and oppression over the decades, and now we are living through genocide.”
June 16, 2026
“Along the way, cars drove through corpses. This is no exaggeration, there were corpses everywhere, left lying in piles. Gaza had become a city of the murdered, a city of ghosts.”
Khaled Abu Samra
30 years old
Al-Shifa Hospital
Khaled Abu Samra
30 years old
Al-Shifa Hospital
July 25, 2026
This is not an easy book to read, but it transforms the Palestinian suffering often reduced to mere statistics back into human stories. Raw, unfiltered and haunting testimonies told by real human beings.
June 16, 2026
5⭐️
Feels wrong to rate a book like this, but I’m giving it 5 stars to tell you that you should read it—for the sake of humanity
Feels wrong to rate a book like this, but I’m giving it 5 stars to tell you that you should read it—for the sake of humanity
June 21, 2026
Mandatory reading. Devastating.
June 26, 2026
Just wow, beautiful, devestating and gripping account
July 6, 2026
A difficult read, but a mandatory read.
July 11, 2026
Absolutely horrific collection of accounts by survivors of the Gaza genocide. An incredibly hard yet necessary read.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Devastating and essential.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 35 reviews