"It would seem that the eyes and ears of the world aren’t interested in Palestinian life, only in Palestinian death."

"This isn't an Aggression anymore. It's a Genocide. There isn't another word that can describe the scale of violence I see in front of me."

"It's a calculated, deliberate, and ruthless ethnic cleansing, and nobody seems to care. Why do we live in a world where Genocide has been normalized?"

This book is heartbreaking but such an important read. Anyone who thinks that this is a "war" and both sides are as bad as each other should be reading this. It is a genocide and Plestia shows the devastation. At only 23 she is "4 Israeli aggressions old". She recorded the destruction and brutality of her people and country.

She shows the beauty and life of Gaza before the genocide. She also shows the humans, the ones who are being wiped out by ethnic cleansing. Palestinians are beautiful humans, and the love they show for each other and their country during such horrific times is incredible. People who have lost everything will share anything they have. Strangers are digging through rubble to help families find their loved ones. Children are making bracelets so that they can identify their loved ones bodies. Doctors are still trying to help the injured in the worst conditions whilst putting their lives at risk.

This book details the genocide. There is no defending bombing hospitals, churches, and shelters. Murdering Journalists and doctors is a war crime.
Plestia's diary entries are raw and full of emotion. She describes how getting out has resulted in so much pain and guilt at being safe whilst family and friends are trapped and likely to die.

"December me thought that making it out alive would be the best case scenario. Right now I can't see it. I'm safe and alive, but I don't think I know what being alive truly means."

Whilst this is a hard read it is a privelage to only witness this atrocity through pages/screens.

REVIEW
cw: bullying, genocide, war crimes, suicidal ideation

In early October 2023, Palestinian Plestia Alaqad was a recent graduate with dreams of becoming a successful journalist. By the end of November, her social media posts depicting daily life in Gaza, amid Israel's deadly invasion and bombardment, would profoundly move millions of people. She would be internationally known as the 'Eyes of Gaza'. Told in three distinct parts, the book is a mix of poetry and first-hand recollections from within Gaza, before the events of October 2023, during, and after the author and her family were able to cross the border into Egypt.


This was a deeply humbling read, especially as I always read in bed. A warm, safe bed, where I know I'm certain to wake up surrounded by my family, with access to everything I could possibly need to survive. I say humbling because what shone through repeatedly was the love, kindness, and generosity of the Palestinian people.
I wish I had even a single per cent of Plestia Alaqad's writing skills to adequately put into words how I feel about this book. Instead, I simply urge everyone, and I DO mean everyone, to read The Eyes of Gaza. I personally first learned about what was actually happening in Gaza while studying in Spain in the 90s. I was the same age then as the author was when she started writing this diary. I will always be eternally grateful to my Catalan journalism professor who, in the middle of a European economics course, went completely off-topic and redefined everything I'd ever seen or heard on British TV news about Palestine.
The diary entries follow Plestia's realisation that this particular 'aggression' is not like the others she's lived through.
I found myself screaming at the page multiple times, both at what was happening, and also knowing (in hindsight) what was still to come, especially reading the early diaries entries set in places, I, as a safe westerner have heard of only in devastating reports of horrendous humanitarian violations and war crimes. From her family home in Gaza City to Al-Shifa Hospital, to Khan Younis, and then across the Rafah Border Crossing, we follow her repeated displacement along with her family, friends (old and new), and colleagues. And, while Plestia tells of the bombs, the drones, the sinister warnings used to psychologically torture the Palestinians daily, what stood out most was their kindness, their wonderful sense of community, as well as their profound humanity and resilience. No one should have to live their lives in such fear and flux. The first-hand accounts were horrific, but the overwhelming sense of kindness and attempted normalcy, such as the search for Aloos’ plant, the ice cream, and little Waleed with his birthday sweets, were beautiful little beacons of hope. But I also found myself wondering what became of each and every person she met along the way, especially as so many were displaced to places that we've all seen in the news. In between all of the horrific realities of genocide, there was also Plestia's dry sense of humour. I loved the sibling teasing through the page as she spoke about her brother, Ahmed. But the survivor's guilt was palpable in the third part of the book. How does anyone ever recover from genocide? Especially when it seems the world doesn't care. I wish I had an answer. Instead, I urge everyone to read this first-hand account.
If you’re, in any way, somehow still on the fence* about the reality of what Israel has done in Gaza, you NEED to read this book.

Overall Rating:

*Thanks to the publisher for an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own. The Eyes of Gaza is published on 17th April in the UK*

*and let me be clear, the fence was bombed a long, LONG time ago (if it ever existed at all)

"This isn't an Aggression anymore. It's a Genocide. There isn't another word that can describe the scale of violence I see in front of me."
"It's a calculated, deliberate and ruthless ethnic cleansing, and nobody seems to care. Why do we live in a world where Genocide has been normalized?"

Plestia Alaqad has published her diaries for the world to read. Her first-hand account of the horrors she witnessed and experienced as a journalist in Gaza are gut-wrenching.

"Why is that Palestinians are so dehumanized that the world believes it's our God-given role to die? If what is happening in Gaza was happening in any other country, would the world remain as silent and calm?"

By reading this diary, I've not only gained an insight into Plestia, the journalist who I follow on Instagram but a Plestia before October 7th, 2023. She was a Journalism graduate from a university in Cyprus. She had a social life and she used to frequent the restaurants and cafes in Gaza that have now been destroyed. Her diary entries voice what once was and what it has now become.

We read about her guilt of fleeing Gaza and her trying to navigate her new normal. The Eyes of Gaza is truly a diary of resilience. May Plestia's voice remain loud and strong and may our hope never fade of Palestine becoming free.

"It would seem that the eyes and ears of the world aren’t interested in Palestinian life, only in Palestinian death."

The Eyes of Gaza is a heartbreaking and harrowing account of the genocide in Gaza told through Plestia Alaqad's diary entries as she experienced the events firsthand.

This book is a hard but necessary read. It had me in tears nearly throughout and my heart aching from sorrow, helplessness, and frustration.

Plestia was only 21 years old when the genocide started and she had to watch her people and country being killed. While trying to comprehend the death and destruction amidst the chaos of fear and uncertainty, she still decided to document events on social media for the world to see. She's simultaneously a young woman, journalist, daughter, sister, friend, Palestinian, and a victim of genocide though she expresses her frustrations with how Palestinians are often only seen as the latter; as victims or numbers rather than individual human beings who all have lives, hopes, and dreams. Using her own diary entries and recounting stories from and about the people she interacted with, it's impossible for any reader to think of the many deaths in Gaza merely as numbers.

Plestia's reporting on Palestine in late 2023 meant I already knew of her but reading this book allowed for a more insightful and nuanced understanding of her and what she's gone through. Reading her account of what she experienced, how in a few days she went from worrying about what to wear to being unable to sleep due to all the death she'd seen, how big a toll reporting on the genocide took on her mental and physical health on top of having to live it, and yet how she never stopped was such a testament to her bravery and resilience.

These qualities seem to be shared by the Palestinian people as a whole - their resilience, resistance, and refusal to give up or give in is as admirable as it is sad that it constantly has to be put to the test. The continuous stories of Palestinians coming together to support each other in any way possible, even when they've lost their homes or family members and are in fear of their own lives, speaks to the love and community they feel for their people and their country.

Throughout the book, Plestia's sorrow, fear, fatigue, and frustration with not only the genocide itself but also the international reaction or lack thereof is clear. It's hard to read this book without feeling helpless and sad and reckoning with your own privilege as well as the lack of adequate action by those with power in the international community.

The Eyes of Gaza is a visceral and raw book about a currently ongoing genocide. It's both an on-the-ground account and a plea for justice and for the world to wake up and act! It's a hard but necessary read that underscores the humanity of all Palestinians and the need for a free Palestine!

"For Palestinians, the war is never over—ceasefire is merely the space between tragedies. And in that space, we carry with us the unbearable weight of memories that cannot be undone."

//

"It’s a different type of pain, to see your homeland, once covered with olive and lemon trees, lush, fruitful pastures and the remnants of ancient, beautiful humanity, reduced to rubble, populated by camps and tents. I can’t always gather the strength to film what I see, because my eyes don’t want to believe that what they see is true. So instead, I just walk through the camp, between the tents, watching people’s eyes and trying to memorize their faces, so that somebody will have known them before the end."


Thank you to Pan Macmillan for the ARC

I have so much to say about this but in short- this book should be made mandatory reading in history classes in secondary schools as a primary source of what it is like to exist in a genocide when the world is silent. In the UK at least we are made to read first hand accounts of the first and second world wars and it only makes sense for this current onslaught of extreme violence to be studied to avoid history repeating itself.

I thought I would finish this book quickly given its short length, but the truth is, that despite following Plestia and her compatriots from the start of the current genocide and seeing everything on social media for the best part of 18 months now, reading her raw account of what happened was much more harrowing. I had to stop and take a break from what I read and my god do I recognise how much privilege I have to be able to do that, whilst thousands of innocent men, women and children still have no choice but to wake up everyday with no certainty that they won’t be put permanently to sleep by the cruelty of the IOF.

This was an incredibly well written account given the circumstances and really does put everything into perspective, even for someone who has known about and supported the Palestinian cause more broadly for a number of years now. Plestia is wise beyond her years and whilst that is meant as a compliment, it would be a huge injustice to not acknowledge that a lot of this is down to the fact that Palestinians are forced into that way of being from a young age, when they realise that their existence is politicised and, as Plestia correctly points out, their value unfairly correlates with how well they fit the “perfect victim” narrative that people in other crisis zones are simply not held to. The IOF has benefitted hugely from Palestinians and in particular Gazans not being seen simply as human beings just like you and I, who have lives and desires just like the next person.

This book is essential reading and I would recommend this to anyone who still has any doubts in their mind over whether this is a genocide or not. Thank you to Pan MacMillan and NetGalley for providing me with early access to read this incredibly important book.

The Eyes of Gaza is a diary of genocide from Palestinian journalist Plestia Alaqad.

Journalists on the ground play a vital role in capturing something of everyday life in times of trauma. Alaqad juxtaposes the relatable with the horrifying in what is a completely dehumanising invasion of Gaza. It is a dignified, impassioned portrait of a people under bombardment.

You can tell that social posts are her usual medium, and this book stays true to her voice. She writes with the candid simplicity of youth, her emotions raw and unedited, albeit filtered through some of the clichés all young writers rely on. Through the pages of her diary, recounting her first-hand experiences in her own words becomes a powerful reclamation of identity in a war that threatens her very existence.

This book is not only an emotional and compelling read, but it is genuinely the chance to Gaza from a Palestinian, who has lived there before and during the current genocide.

Plestia Alaqad shares her diaries that dont feel overly edited from her time reporting on her Gaza during Israeli attacks during the first few months of increased aggression following the events on 7th October. It reminds the reader that these events have been happening since 1948 and how she didnt know she would have to live through events that her family had told her about.

Due to the diary nature, we get snippets of her experience and the struggles she faced emotionally during her time in Gaza and since leaving. The entries are raw and confused, which leads me to believe they have attempted to edit only when absolutely necessary.

I thought her poetry added an extra layer to the book, giving us access to her deeper observations and feelings. I wish more people would open their ears to these stories, so we could try to bring an end to the genocide that Plestia witnesses in Gaza.

This Book Shattered Me—And Somehow, I Needed That

I just want to say this right up front: The Eyes of Gaza isn't an easy book to read—but I don't think it's meant to be. It's one of the most necessary books I've ever had in my hands. Plestia Alaqad was just 22 when she began chronicling the genocide in Gaza—not as some distant observer, but as a young Palestinian woman living it in real time. Her words aren't spoken from a safe remove. They're spoken from the center of heartbreak.

Her diary entries are raw and visceral—so charged with emotion, fear, love, and fatigue, they almost hum off the page. One minute she's a journalist, attempting to reveal the world the truth. The next, she's a daughter, a sister, a friend, watching everything she's ever known disintegrate under airstrikes.

What shattered me completely were the everyday moments she finds. Such as her cousins sitting together making bead bracelets with names marked on them—not for decoration, but so that their bodies might be later known. How does one process that level of grief while still fighting to survive?How do you even learn to get through something like that? Not to mention record it?

And then her poetry—scattered between entries like shards of her soul. Short, aching pieces that somehow say everything.

But worst of all, what broke my heart was the shame she feels after running away to Australia. Even safety is not safe when your people are still alive—and dying—under the bombs. She describes entering a shop, glancing at fresh clothes, and feeling sick. How can she shop when her friends are rummaging around in rubble for food scraps?

This book is not solely about bombs and war. It's about the life lost. The birthdays never celebrated. The inside jokes never finished. The small pleasures—the ones that should have been mundane—that were taken away. Plestia refuses to let us view Gaza as a headline. She reminds us it's a home. It's people. It's love, and loss, and resilience.

I read this with a lump in my throat and a heavy, profound sense of my own privilege. Each sip of fresh water, each moment of quiet felt something I could no longer afford to take for granted. That's what her writing does—it makes you feel it. Truly feel it. And it doesn't let you turn away.

The Eyes of Gaza is not just a memoir. It's a plea for justice. A documentation of survival. A love letter to a shattered homeland but one still intensely alive in the hearts of its people. It is a testament to resilience, a cry for justice, and a love letter to a homeland striving to exist.

Read it. Hold it tight. Let it transform you.

Free Palestine.

(Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC. This one’s going to live rent-free in my soul for a long, long time.)

Reading The Eyes of Gaza by Plestia Alaqad shook me to my core. This isn’t just a book—it’s a living testimony of a young woman caught between survival and storytelling, and the weight she carries is unimaginable. Her diary entries, written during and after the Israeli bombardment of Gaza in October 2023, are raw, intimate, and utterly heartbreaking.

I’ve been following Plestia, Bisan, and many others throughout all of this. Watching them live and report from the heart of such devastation watching them go through things no human should ever experience has been gut-wrenching. The world feels dystopian. How do you even process the silence of the rich, the powerful, the influencers who say nothing while an entire people are being wiped out? There’s a deep, heavy kind of helplessness in just watching doomscrolling through videos, reposting what you can, donating here and there, knowing it’s not enough. That I can’t do anything real to stop their suffering. It eats at you.

Honestly, I see “Palestine” and it’s an automatic 5 stars from me. Not out of pity, but because every single voice coming out of that land carries a weight that the world needs to hear. These are not just stories—they are warnings, memorials, love letters, and protests all rolled into one. The Eyes of Gaza is no exception.

What struck me the most about Plestia’s writing is how normal her voice is. She talks about her favorite clothes, how she misses her morning coffee routine, how silence feels heavier than sound. There are flashes of humor, warmth, even a sense of playfulness sometimes—but all wrapped in this suffocating grief. That contrast hits hard. Because this isn’t fiction. It’s not dramatized. It’s her real life, and it mirrors the lives of so many Palestinians we’ll never hear from. It reminds you just how easily you could swap places—how fate is often just geography.

She includes some of her poetry throughout the book, and wow… it’s stunning. Lyrical without being overly polished, her words pierce right through. One line that stayed with me was about how, if her diary was found in the rubble, maybe a little boy would burn it for warmth. The fact that she can still think with such tenderness in the middle of chaos? That broke me.

This isn’t just a book—it’s a reminder. That Palestinians aren’t statistics. They’re people who were meant to live normal lives, just like us. Plestia’s voice is brave, unwavering, and unforgettable. I hope she returns to a free Palestine one day. And I hope the world never forgets what she—and her people—have endured.

Plestia is 23. At 23, my biggest concern was finding a job after graduation—not waking up to the sound of airstrikes, not rationing food and water, and not walking past the rubble that used to be your neighbor's home. And certainly not fearing the death of a loved one every time my phone buzzed.

I've been consciously seeking out works by Palestinian authors and journalists. Beyond the unbearable sorrow and hopelessness, The Eyes of Gaza reminds us gently but devastatingly how normal Palestinian lives are meant to be.

Alaqad touches on something profound: the world has only been shown Gaza in ruins. We rarely see it as a place where people laughed, made stupid jokes, celebrated birthdays, got bored, fell in love. And yet, that’s the life that’s being stolen every single day. They were supposed to live lives like yours and mine, not become names lost in endless casualty lists.

Palestinians are not just survivors. They are warriors of spirit, of memory, of truth. Reading this memoir reminded me why bearing witness matters. I hope I live to see a free Palestine.

This non-fiction book follows young Palestinian journalist Plestia Alaqad as she lives through the invasion and bombardment of Gaza in October 2023. The story is told through a series of diary extracts and is a raw and vulnerable insight into the immense human suffering Palestinians faced and continue to face to this day.

The writing is simple and clear, making this book extremely accessible (even to those who may feel intimidated by non-fiction books). I found myself drawn in to Plestia and her family’s story, racing through the pages in one sitting.

If you’re looking for a comprehensive explanation of the situation and what happened (and continues to happen) on the ground in Gaza, this is not it. This book very much focuses on the human experience. Plestia’s inner thoughts and feelings as she lives through such a traumatic and devastating event. We see how she grapples with not only the devastation and human suffering she is forced to witness daily, but also her survivors guilt when she is able to leave Gaza.

This is an extremely important story and one that I’d highly encourage everyone to read.

wow, what a heart breaking account of Gaza showing a young woman who was not only going through the terrible genocide but sacrificing her mental health and physical well being to get the story out there. Her poetry is absolutely stunning and I think that Plestia will go far in life. Free Palestine! Thank you netgalley for letting me read and review.

Thanks so much to Pan Macmillan and Plestia Alaqad for the eARC. All opinions expressed are my own.

Honestly, I would consider this an essential read. It's heartbreaking, raw and honest. Reading this a year after the initial diary entries, and seeing the shred of hope Alaqad weaves into the words, hurt my soul, knowing that the Gaza continues to undergo immense pain.

I cannot recommend this enough.

Where do I even start with this review? Plestia is just 22 years old, and she has lived through a genocide. One that started back in the 1940s and has separated generations of Palestinians from their land, their people, and their bodies.

This book is an edit of Plestia's diary from 7th October 2023, it shows her determination to work as a journalist throughout the atrocities but also the realism of living in a country being torn apart by bombs and bullets. The worry, the despair, the resilience despite all odds, the community. And when she escapes this environment the relief, but also the guilt and the worry for everyone who is still back home. And the longing and homesickness that never leaves.

Plestia also includes some of her poetry between chapters. It really captures the community and the grief that Gazians are living through on a daily basis. At one point in her diaries Plestia says that she wanted to be published like Rupi Kaur. I'm glad that she has been able to publish her poetry as well as her experiences.

This book brought me to tears more than once, as I sit here in my privilege with heating, electricity, WiFi, a roof over my head and no threats of attack at any moment. Even taking a drink of water whilst I was reading felt like a privilege, and it is. Because Palestinians right now don't have drinking water. And I just got mine from the tap.

The book itself is structured daily, after an introduction. From the start of this most recent bombardment by the IOF, Plestia writes daily about her experiences. The hospitals overrun with bodies, people selling wares from the rubble of their shops. In November 2023 Plestia and her immediate family were able to leave Gaza for Australia. At this point the diary is no longer daily. Until May 2024 the entries are now monthly, talking about adjusting to "normal" life in Australia and how things that she once loved, such as clothes shopping, no longer bring her joy because all she can think about are those back in Gaza who struggle to find anything. The final chapter is written after the ceasefire of the IOF, 19/01/2025. That ceasefire was, of course, broken by the IOF.

I could have highlighted the whole book, but there were certain sections that really stood out to me. One was when Plestia talked about the posibility of losing her diary in Gaza. About how it could be found by an excited little boy. About how he would take this notebook full of life back to his family and burn it for just a little warmth. "If that comes to pass, and your journey is that of a diary that becomes a candle, I just want you to know that you've been a good friend to me."

Another is about Plestia's cousins making bead bracelts for everyone. "I wish I could say that it was for fun, but they've been branding each bracelet with a name, in case its intended owner gets killed. They want the doctors to be able to identify people. It's sweet, in a sad way."

This book exposes what it is truly like to live through the genocide of your people. Of the daily struggle, the banding together, and the grief. "I'm homesick for a home that no longer exists."

The Eye of Gaza is such a powerful portrayal of the genocide. The tone is so harrowing whilst still having Plestia’s youthful voice, which if anything makes it all the more affecting. The way she discusses pop culture and relatable teenage experiences in and around the horrific trauma that her and the people of Palestine are experiencing brings you back to how close to home this is. This is an issue that isn’t too far away to care about, it should be at the forefront of our minds. These people are living through the absolute horrors of a genocide and they’re humans just like we are. Humans pushed to the extremes of existence. The courage that she had and still has in writing this and sharing her love of Palestine with the world is remarkable. I think everyone should read this, I can’t wait for it to come out so I can put it into the hands of all people.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-ARC to review.