Electric Literature is pleased to reveal the cover of Gaza: The Story of a Genocide edited by Fatima Bhutto and Sonia Faleiro, which will be published on October 7, 2025 by Verso Books. You can pre-order your copy here.
The story of genocide belongs first to its survivors. Only they can truly bear witness to its unspeakable truths—the terror, the insecurity, the indignity, the endless grief. In this urgent and powerful collection, Ahmed Alnaouq recounts the devastating loss of twenty-one family members. Noor Alyacoubi offers a searing account of starvation in Gaza. Mariam Barghouti examines the brutality of Israeli settler violence in the West Bank, while Lina Mounzer reports on the aftermath of Israel’s simultaneous bombing of Lebanon. Their testimonies, along with those of many others, illuminate the enduring psychological and physical toll of state violence.
Gaza: The Story of a Genocide brings together personal testimony, expert analysis, poetry, photography, and frontline reportage to document the full scope of destruction inflicted on the indigenous Palestinian people—their lives, their land, and their future. This landmark volume features contributions from recipients of the Palestine Book Award, Arab American Book Award, Pulitzer Prize, Emmy Award, National Book Award, and Gandhi Peace Award. With illustrations by Joe Sacco and Mona Chalabi, it includes the work of the late poet Hiba Abu Nada, who was killed by an Israeli airstrike on her home in Khan Younis, Gaza, on October 20, 2023.
Other contributors include Mosab Abu Toha, susan abulhawa, Laila Al-Arian, Tareq Baconi, Eman Basher, Omar Barghouti, Yara Eid, Huda J. Fakhreddine, Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, Yara Hawari, Maryam Iqbal, Nina Lakhani, Ahmed Masoud, Lina Mounzer, Malaka Shwaikh, Shareef Sarhan, and Mary Turfah.
Here is the cover, designed by Chantal Jahchan:
Fatima Bhutto and Sonia Faleiro: All royalties from this book are being donated to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
UNRWA has long been a lifeline for two million refugees in Gaza, delivering food, shelter, healthcare, and education in the face of unimaginable devastation. Since October 2023, 269 of its staff members have been killed—the highest number of UN personnel ever lost in a conflict.
This collection of testimonies, essays, poetry, and illustrations is one part of a larger effort. In 2024, moved by the scale of suffering in Gaza, we launched a fundraising campaign for children who had lost limbs in Israel’s assault—children who now form the largest cohort of amputees in modern history. According to UNICEF, more than 1,000 children in Gaza lost limbs in just two months compared to thirty in Ukraine after nearly two years of war. Doctors have described how these children were not only maimed but deliberately targeted—many shot in the head by snipers. The number of children killed in Gaza exceeds those in any recent war: Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, or Afghanistan.
That same year, we launched #BooksforGaza, a fundraising initiative with agent Julia Churchill that brought together writers, editors, and publishers around the world. Together, we raised over $85,000 for the Ghassan Abu Sittah Children’s Fund, which enables injured children to receive reconstructive surgery outside Gaza. But the need only grows.
Amnesty International has described Israel’s campaign as “genocidal,” citing three simultaneous patterns of destruction: the decimation of vital infrastructure, mass forced displacement in unsafe conditions, and the blocking of life-saving aid. This book stands as a record of the human toll.
It is also a collective act of remembrance. In bearing witness to the deaths of children and parents, to the obliteration of homes, land, animals, classrooms, and the environment, we hope to capture the full scale of what was lost and what must be remembered. The cover, by Chantal Jahchan, depicts life in Gaza before the genocide—what existed, what was cherished, and what has now been destroyed. We asked that our names not appear on the cover so as not to distract from the title, which we believe demands unflinching attention. The word genocide needs to be said out loud.
Some of our contributors are writing from within Gaza, even under bombardment. Others bring global solidarity, urgency, and clarity. They include 2025 Pulitzer Prize winner Mosab Abu Toha, Palestine Book Award winner susan abulhawa, Gandhi Peace Award winner Omar Barghouti, and Emmy Award winner Laila Al-Arian. With illustrations by Joe Sacco and Mona Chalabi, the book also features the work of the late poet Hiba Abu Nada, who was killed by an Israeli airstrike on her home in Khan Younis, Gaza, on October 20, 2023.
These are voices that speak to grief, resistance, history, and hope. We hope this book inspires not only remembrance but action.
Chantal Jahchan: This book is a collection of poems, war reportage, and personal testimonies by a powerful roster of Palestinian writers reflecting on their fight for survival. Representing this with a single image felt reductive.
Instead, I looked through archival material and gathered a handful of Palestinian motifs that together could represent a fuller picture of the human experience in Gaza. These included watermelon, the cypress tree, birds, and the keffiyeh—a symbol of resilience in itself—which contains a fishnet and olive leaves, signifying a connection to the sea and the land.
I recreated these motifs in the style of tatreez, the centuries-old Palestinian technique of embroidery, unifying them visually and tying them directly to Gaza through regional distinctions in the patterns.
