Palestinian writer and journalist Plestia Alaqad is releasing her first book, a chronicle on what it was like to live in Gaza immediately after the October 7 attacks and in the 45 days that followed.
Available to pre-order now before its publication next year, The Eyes of Gaza is a series of diary extracts.
Alaqad, 22, has received international recognition for her coverage as the Gaza-Israel war broke out last year. She used social media to report and document the impact it had on the lives of Palestinian civilians.
Her video diaries, emotional storytelling and first-hand reporting gained Alaqad millions of followers. But in November 2023, she fled with her family to Egypt and then Australia, where she now resides.
Pan Macmillan won an auction against five other publishers for the rights to publish the book. “The Eyes of Gaza is hands-down the most important book I’ve ever worked on,” editor Ause Abdelhaq told book trade publication The Bookseller.
“The continuing situation in Palestine is the greatest humanitarian tragedy of our times, but Plestia’s insights offer a glimpse into the kaleidoscope of stories that we don’t hear on the news: the gentle acts of quiet; necessary heroism; the everyday lives that were upended by terror; and the moments of unexpected tenderness and vulnerability that have emerged amid the chaos.”
While the stories in The Eyes of Gaza depict the horrors of what ordinary Palestinians have been going through, they also aim to be a beacon of hope, advocating for a better future for Gaza and the wider region.
Alaqad announced news of her book on Instagram with a sombre post as Israeli air strikes continue across southern Lebanon.
“Life is funny. Today, the Lebanese sky above me is in flames. Today is also the announcement day of my book Eyes of Gaza, which I started writing way back on October 7 2023 – or as I knew it, week 1,” she wrote to her 4.5 million followers.
“I thought I was documenting the greatest horrors I would ever feel. I felt that by the time I published this journal, maybe, just maybe, Gaza would finally be safe and the world would learn from what happened to us. That is not my feeling now.
“I do not feel that those weeks are behind us, in this close exile to the ruins of my homeland. I don’t feel that I am in week 50 either. I feel that I am in week 1.”
BMW%20M4%20Competition
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Uefa Nations League
League A:
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League D:
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RESULTS
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SPECS
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Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere
Director: Scott Cooper
Starring: Jeremy Allen White, Odessa Young, Jeremy Strong
Rating: 4/5
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Fast%20X
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GIANT REVIEW
Starring: Amir El-Masry, Pierce Brosnan
Director: Athale
Rating: 4/5
RACE CARD
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8.50pm: Al Fahidi Fort Group 2 (T) $250,000 1,400m
9.25pm: Handicap (T) $135,000 2,410m.
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh117,059
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
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The specs: 2018 Infiniti QX80
Price: base / as tested: Dh335,000
Engine: 5.6-litre V8
Gearbox: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 400hp @ 5,800rpm
Torque: 560Nm @ 4,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.1L / 100km
