Aya al-Shawa, 10, sits in sixth grade at a school in northern Gaza, holding a book she recently received and what is now one of her most treasured possessions.
asserted
what → sit → possessions
Before it reached Aya’s hands, it had a difficult journey.
asserted
it → reach → journey
It once sat on a bookshelf before an Israeli attack demolished the building it was housed in, leaving it buried beneath the rubble.
asserted
it → sit → rubble
Then one day someone recovered it, cleaned it, sorted its pages and repaired them.
asserted
someone → recover → them
The book then found its way to a new reader.
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book → find → reader
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attack → respond → strike
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Amid the widespread destruction in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, books – one of the most vulnerable of all items – have become a rare commodity.
asserted
books → mourn → items
About 98 percent of school buildings in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed or damaged, according to UNICEF.
uncertain
percent → destroy → UNICEF
With approximately 700,000 children in Gaza deprived of regular in-person education since the war began in October 2023, books have also become a vital way for children to reconnect with learning.
asserted
children → deprive → learning
UNESCO has documented widespread damage to cultural sites and institutions in Gaza, including libraries.
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UNESCO → document → libraries
With a “ceasefire” in Gaza since October 2025, during which there has been a relative decrease in Israeli bombing, books have begun to take a second life.
asserted
books → begin → life
Mohammed Saad, 54, from Beit Lahiya, has spent more than 35 years collecting books, and before the war, he estimated that he had between 50,000 and 100,000 titles in his library.
asserted
he → spend → library
On December 7, 2023, the library was destroyed.
asserted
library → destroy → December
After being displaced 16 times in total, Saad returned to Beit Lahiya again to see what remained of his book collection.
asserted
what → displace → collection
From the rubble of his home, he began to pull out the surviving books.
asserted
he → begin → books
“I risked my life to save these books from beneath the rubble,” Saad said.
asserted
Saad → risk → rubble
He managed to recover about 12,000 books from the rubble and moved what he could to Deir el-Balah, where he erected a tent and established a library called Athar, meaning “impact” but also relating to antiquities or historical relics.
uncertain
he → manage → antiquities
From the tent, Saad and his son Mohammed began cleaning and repairing the thousands of books in their possession.
asserted
Saad → begin → possession
But Saad’s goal is not only to save the books from damage.
asserted
goal → save → damage
He also wants them to reach people, particularly children.
asserted
them → want → people
The library now sees children coming every day, looking for stories that might help them find some escape from their hardships.
uncertain
them → see → hardships
They buy some of them at symbolic prices ranging from 5 shekels to 15 shekels ($1.63-$4.89), given that books have become unaffordable for most families.
asserted
books → buy → families
Giving children access to books is a key reason for saving them in the first place: to keep knowledge accessible and give them a path back to reading and learning despite war and displacement.
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knowledge → give → war
But the books Saad rescues still face other dangers.
asserted
Saad → rescue → dangers
“I saved them from beneath the rubble and from the fire.
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I → save → fire
Today, I cannot save them from the rain,” Saad said.
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Saad → save → rain
Elsewhere, Omar Hamad, 30, a displaced person from Beit Hanoon in northern Gaza, has also been searching for destroyed libraries for books.
asserted
Hamad → displace → books
He traced the locations of libraries in northern Gaza and Gaza City and contacted their owners.
asserted
He → trace → owners
So far, Hamad says, he and his team have extricated some 3,000 books.
asserted
he → say → books
Not all of the books came from rubble.
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all → come → rubble
Some were donated by the families of people who were killed and had private libraries, while the team bought or reprinted others.
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team → donate → others
Among the books Omar rescued was The Catastrophe of Palestine, printed in 1956.
asserted
Catastrophe → rescue → 1956
He found it in the destroyed Islamic University of Gaza library, where books were scattered among the rubble.
asserted
books → find → rubble
Retrieving the book was only the beginning of his task.
asserted
Retrieving → retrieve → task
Omar and his friend Ibrahim cleaned the books, removed dust and traces of rubble, sorted and arranged the pages, and tried to repair whatever they could.
When a book required more specialised restoration, he turned to Jameel Mikdad, 71, in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City.
uncertain
he → clean → City
Mikdad has worked in bookbinding and book repair for more than 45 years.
asserted
Mikdad → work → years
His library and printing shop were destroyed during the war, but he continued working with limited resources, using his experience to rearrange pages, glue torn sections of the works, sew books and rebind them.
asserted
he → destroy → them
There is no single cost for repairing a book; it depends on the extent of the damage and the materials required.
asserted
it → be → damage
But the cost of materials has risen sharply.
asserted
cost → rise → materials
Mikdad says a 3kg (6.6-pound) container of white glue cost 30-35 shekels ($9.78-11.48) before the war.
asserted
container → say → war
…and 18 more, not listed.
The Aporia
