Meet the Palestinians saving books from the rubble to preserve a literary legacy
Doaa Shaheen reports in The New Arab on 30 September 2026:
Not long ago, in March 2026, it was reported by the Cultural Cooperation Programme that 87 public libraries and archives in Gaza had been partially or completely destroyed by Israel’s ongoing genocide. Amid that destruction, efforts to save what remains of Gaza’s literary legacy are continuing.
On the floor of a small tent in southern Gaza’s Deir al-Balah, dozens of books that survived Israel’s genocide are piled on top of one another. There are no shelves, cabinets or tables for readers. Some books spill onto the pavement as their owner tries to clean, arrange and protect them as best he can.
The books reached the south after an arduous rescue journey from beneath the rubble of a library destroyed in Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza. Their owner wanted to give them a new lease of life and a chance to reach readers, while a large part of his collection remains buried beneath the debris.
“When I returned to the library, I found it destroyed. Without equipment or heavy machinery, I used a small hammer and, after hours of difficult work, managed to open a passage and reach part of the library,” recalls Mohammed Saad, owner of al-Athar Library, who has spent 35 years collecting and preserving books. “I began pulling the books out one by one.” Mohammed rescued part of his collection of roughly 100,000 books, while others remain trapped beneath the rubble.