Palestinian writer memoirs her survival, pain after losing 150 family members in Gaza war

Palestinian writer Aya Abu Nasr has published a book born from unimaginable loss. Titled "In Gaza: Those Who Died Survived, and Those Who Survived Died," her book documents her experience after an Israeli airstrike on October 29, 2024, killed 150 members of her family in Beit Lahia. Abu Nasr says she turned to writing after losing her parents, siblings, cousins, and extended family, using the pen as her only means to preserve their names and recount two years of bombardment, hunger, displacement, and life in tents. Published in Oman, Aya described it as a historical duty, "I wrote so that the names of my loved ones would not be erased...and so that Gaza would not die twice, once under the rubble, and once in silence."