A Historian In Gaza

‘The Gaza I knew, and whose length and breadth I’ve travelled, has ceased to exist.’

‘The Gaza I knew, and whose length and breadth I’ve travelled, has ceased to exist.’

Jean-Pierre Filiu, acclaimed historian of Gaza, is intimately familiar with the land’s people and places; he speaks the local dialect. But nothing prepared him for what he encountered there in December 2024. This is his unforgettable, unbearably intimate account of one month in a place shattered by Israel’s all-out war.

When the historian returned to Gaza, he arrived under circumstances unimaginably different from his many past visits since 1980: only a limited number of convoys were allowed into the Strip, and he was one of the few humanitarians able to enter, this time by night. He remained inside for thirty-three days, and emerged determined to bear witness to the devastation—to the Gazans fighting simply to live, every single day.

Filiu’s haunting portrait of a land betrayed is a grim work of war reportage, documented with the acuity of a historian; and a lyrical narrative of human suffering, and human dignity.

''[A] searing new eyewitness account [and] a much-needed history lesson.'' 

''This superb book is written by a historian who has experienced many wars and who has visited Gaza since 1982. Filiu writes, "the Gaza I''d known [had] ceased to exist". The shock and revulsion at what he witnessed there, where death now can come at any time, comes through on every page. Written with empathy and deep knowledge of the place and its people, Filiu puts the reader right at the centre of Gaza''s horrific reality. I was moved to the bone reading his account, which is like no other I''ve read on Gaza. Filiu concludes that "this is a world where giving up is disguised as ''realism''". Not so for the author of A Historian in Gaza.''

Jean-Pierre Filiu is Professor of Middle East Studies at Sciences Po, and former visiting professor at Columbia and Georgetown Universities. His books include The Middle East: A Political History; and Guardian Book of the Year Gaza: A History (also published by Hurst), which won Middle East Monitor’s Palestine Book Award.