Gaza residents: Your presence puts your life in danger

Gaza residents: Your presence puts your life in danger

Publication Date: 2025

Publisher:

Country of Publication: Lebanon,

Pages:

Thakirat al niqsan

In her latest narrative nonfiction work, Samar Yazbek continues the vital project she began with A Woman in the Crossfire, The Crossing, and 19 Women, chronicling the devastating destruction of our region. Throughout 2024, Yazbek engaged with hundreds of survivors from Gaza, posing a singular, haunting question: What were you doing on October 7th 2023? From these poignant testimonies, she has selected 26 narratives to share with the world.

Written in the first person, Yazbek captures the raw, chilling accounts of ordinary civilians aged 13 to 65, who have witnessed what history may one day remember as one of the most savage wars of our time. Their stories reveal a nightmarish dystopia fraught with the horrors of modern warfare: from the use of artificial intelligence, drones, and depleted uranium bombs to exploding barrels and famine. These survivors describe a reality where people are hunted down like prey, fleeing across the open-air prison that is the Gaza Strip. They recount harrowing scenes of friends and family disappearing into pink mist, being internally pulverized, or buried beneath rubble, their flesh mingled with concrete dust and steel.

Each survivor has endured unimaginable loss—homes shattered, loved ones vanished, limbs obliterated. Many have been treated in hospitals ravaged by Israeli attacks, witnessing firsthand the destruction of these crucial healthcare institutions. Yazbek emphasizes the pivotal role of hospitals in this war and illustrates the dire consequences of their devastation: lacking medicine, beds, and basic resources, they have become symbolic of the hell endured by the victims.

Yet, amid the tragedies, these survivors remain resolutely determined to share their stories. They cling to the hope that their voices will resonate, that the world will listen, and that they will someday return home to rebuild their lives.

The English working title is adapted from one of the multiple flyers dropped on the residents of Gaza minutes before a bombing.

 

Index:

 

  • Introduction
  • Nasma Al Fara and Samer Al Agha (Nasma, 41 – Samer 54)
  • Khaled Abu Samra, 30
  • Mohamad Fadi Saleh, 25
  • Nada Issa Ayash, 40
  • Shima Naji, 21
  • Mohamad Hamdan, 65 
  • Hajer Abou Semaan, 30
  • Mohamad Yasser Abu Said, 18
  • Amal Al Adham, 24
  • Ibrahim Qudaih, 21
  • Jihan Al Bakri, 30
  • Mohamad Ala Abd Al Aal Qarmout, 16
  • Saja Yaser Saleh, 23
  • Abdallah Yussef Aakila, 13
  • Huda Sufiyan Said Al Baghdadi, 33
  • Abdel Rahman Iyad Abu Hamde, 17
  • Wafa Asaad Abu Semaan, 28
  • Esraa Mhanna, 33
  • Sujud Abu Halib, 19
  • Muhanad Radwan, 15  
  • Nour Ashour, 20
  • Ahmad Abu Radwan, 30
  • S., 34
  • Bushra Al Ghulban Abu Sabih, 42
  • Bara Hamade, 17
  • Firas Al Sheikh Radwan, 21

Coming soon.

Gaza residents: Your presence puts your life in danger