We Are Not Numbers

Palestinians inspect a house that was destroyed in an Israeli air strike, in the city of Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, April 24, 2024. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

Can Palestinians imagine a future with Israelis after this war?

My grandfather remembers neighborly relations with Jews before 1948. For Palestinians today, such a prospect seems nearly impossible.

By Mahmoud Mushtaha May 27, 2024

Palestinians outside a destroyed house after an Israeli air strike, in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, May 13, 2023. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

We are ready to rebuild and rewrite Gaza’s narrative

The constant state of fear and uncertainty cast a dark shadow over our lives. But our dreams and resilience help us survive Gaza's dark times.

By Haneen AbdAlnabi May 18, 2023

Palestinian demonstrators stand alongside the Gaza border fence during a protest, east of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, December 6, 2019. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

Palestinians in Gaza are bringing their stories of siege to Israelis

A new site aims to bring the experiences of Palestinians under siege in Gaza into Israelis' homes — by translating their stories into Hebrew.

By Orly Noy January 6, 2020

Latest

A section of the separation wall in Bethlehem, West Bank, February 16, 2013. (hjl/(CC BY-NC 2.0)

Re-imagining a future by examining the past: Novels of love in Palestine

A trilogy of novels set in Palestine raises critical questions about the tension between identity and the desire to live. By Salsabeel Hamdan The Palace of Angels, Mohammed Massoud Morsi, Wild Dingo Press, 2019. In The Palace of Angels, his trilogy of novels set in Palestine and the Palestinian diaspora, Australian-Egyptian novelist Mohammed Massoud Morsi places his…

By +972 Magazine September 27, 2019

Palestinians wait to travel into Egypt, after the Rafah border crossing was opened for three days for humanitarian cases, in the southern Gaza Strip, April 12, 2018. (Abed Rahim Khatib/ Flash90)

Escaping Gaza is easier now — for Palestinians who can afford it

Egypt has kept the Rafah crossing from Gaza continuously open since May, diverging from a years-long policy. But leaving the Strip is only the first of many challenges. By Pam Bailey and Fadi O. Al-Naji GAZA CITY — Um Ibrahim tried but failed to persuade her youngest son to reverse his decision to emigrate. The…

By +972 Magazine November 27, 2018

A woman with her baby in a Gaza cemetery. (Photo by Mohammed Abu Nahel)

Living among the dead in Gaza

I asked a man who lives among the graves in Gaza how he could bear to live among the dead. He challenged me. ‘How is living among the dead is worse than living among the living?’ By Mohammed Arafat When I was a child, I used to pass by the Ma’madany [“Baptist”] graveyard in Gaza…

By +972 Magazine January 15, 2018

Shrouq Aila, 20, Jabaliya refugee camp, Gaza Strip. (Shrouq Aila)

Voices without borders: Four young writers from Gaza tell their story

Young Gazans are finally getting an opportunity to present themselves to the world in their own words. +972 speaks to some of the participants in the 'We Are Not Numbers' writing project about hope, love, war and, of course, writing.

By Natasha Soffer-Roth August 25, 2015