The Gates of Gaza: a story of betrayal, survival, and hope in Israels borderlands

Superb. A visceral, heartbreaking, and powerful account with personal testimonies and deep research of the October 7 Hamas invasion, massacres, and atrocities committed that day. Essential reading for anyone who wants to know what exactly happened. Simon Sebag Montefiore

The gripping, true story of how leading Israeli journalist Amir Tibon, along with his wife and their two young children, were rescued on 7 October 2023 by Tibons father an incredible tale of survival that also reveals the tensions and failures that led to Hamass attacks that day.

On that fateful day, Tibon and his wife were awakened by mortar rounds exploding near their home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, a progressive Israeli settlement along the Gaza border. Soon, they were holding their two young daughters in the familys reinforced safe room, urging them not to cry while they all listened to the gunfire from Hamas attackers outside their windows. With his mobile phone battery running low, Amir texted his father: Theyre here.

Some 45 miles to the north, on the shores of Tel Aviv, Amirs parents saw the news at the same time as they received Amirs note. Immediately, they jumped in their car and raced toward Nahal Oz, armed only with a pistol but intent on saving their family at all costs.

In The Gates of Gaza, Tibon tells his familys harrowing story, describing their terrifying ordeal and the bravery that led to their rescue alongside the histories of the place they call home and the systems of power that have kept them and their neighbours in Gaza in harms way for decades. With sensitivity, and drawing on Israeli and Palestinian sources, Tibon offers an unsparing but ultimately hopeful view of this seemingly intractable conflict and its global reverberations.