Gaza residents revive destroyed books to keep children learning amid war

The Gaza war has destroyed nearly all school buildings, leaving hundreds of thousands of children without classrooms. Long-time collector Mohammed Saad rescued about 12,000 volumes from the ruins of his own library and established a tent-library called Athar in Deir el-Balah, where he and his son clean and repair the books. Parallel efforts by Omar Hamad and his team have retrieved roughly 3,000 additional titles, some donated by families of the deceased, and enlist bookbinder Jameel Mikdad to restore heavily damaged copies despite soaring material costs.

These restored books are offered to children at symbolic prices or loaned through the Phoenix Library, providing a rare avenue for learning. Ten-year-old Aya al-Shawa now holds Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Adventure of the Empty House,” illustrating how rescued literature is returning to its original purpose: to be read. The initiative highlights the resilience of Gaza’s cultural life amid ongoing conflict.