Al-Zaqzooq

LETTERS FROM GAZA is more than a book - it’s a voice from the silence, a heartbeat in the wreckage. Through poetry, letters, and monologues, 30 Gazans lay bare their fears, grief, and relentless hope amid devastation.

Since October 2023, the world has been witnessing the unfolding of the largest humanitarian crisis of this century. And the men, women and children spoken of around the world, fight being silenced through their written words.

While we lamented at the visuals of unimaginable destruction, loss, and unsurmountable pain, there were people living that reality.

Surviving genocide isn’t a blanket experience; there are many facets which remain unheard. This collection, the first of in-the-moment reflections, is pertinent in bringing focus to the human stories behind the crisis, the emotions that rang loudly in the silence of the night, when the shutters went down and the dust had settled.

Throughout the year, 30 people living in the Gaza strip, of varied ages and ethnographies, penned their feelings, fears, memories, thoughts, and hopes on the tempestuous days of war. Each story is a reminder of the world held within every person and how humanity at large is at stake with them.

Collected and compiled by Mahmoud and Mohammed, two prolific writers in Gaza, this collection stands as a testament to unparalleled resilience and unveils the unimaginable emotional scars of war; leaving us overcome with tenderness and compassion.

Mohammed Al-Zaqzooq is a researcher born in Khan Younis. He studied Arabic language and literature at Al-Aqsa. Mohammed is an active member in literary and cultural organizations shaping Gaza’s cultural landscape and the former general coordinator of the ＂ Utopia for Knowledge＂ assembly. His poetry collection The Soothsayers of Khanun won the Khalili Poetry Award at the First Palestinian Cultural Forum for Creative Writers in 2018. Mahmoud Alshaer is an editor, curator, and poet who, until October 2023, was deeply involved in cultural work in Gaza, leading initiatives such as Majalla 28 and Gallery 28 and coordinating the cultural programme at Al Ghussein Cultural House in Gaza’s old city.