The Gates of Gaza - by Amir Tibon (Hardcover)

About the Book

"On the morning of October 7, Amir Tibon and his wife were awakened by mortar rounds exploding near their home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, a progressive Israeli community less than a mile from Gaza City. Soon, they were holding their two young daughters in the family's reinforced safe room, urging them not to cry as gunfire echoed just outside the door. With his cell phone battery running low, Amir texted his father: 'The girls are behaving really well, but I'm worried they'll lose patience soon and Hamas will hear us.' Some 45 miles north, Amir's parents had just cut short an early morning swim along the shores of Tel Aviv. Now, they jumped in their Jeep and sped toward Nahal Oz, armed only with a pistol but intent on saving their family at all costs. ... Woven throughout [this story] is Tibon's own expertise as a longtime international correspondent, as well as more than thirty original interviews: with residents of his kibbutz, with the Israeli soldiers who helped to wrest it from the hands of Hamas, and with experts on Gaza, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the failed peace process"--

Book Synopsis

"Incredibly powerful ... [The Gates of Gaza is] a rescue story, but also a reported history of the tragedy that is Israel's Gaza policy. It helped me to understand how we got to this horrible point."--Susan Glasser, staff writer, The New Yorker

A gripping first-person account of how one Israeli grandfather helped rescue two generations of his family on October 7, 2023--a saga that reveals the deep tensions and systemic failures behind Hamas's attacks that day.

On the morning of October 7, Amir Tibon and his wife were awakened by mortar rounds exploding near their home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, a progressive Israeli community less than a mile from Gaza City. Soon, they were holding their two young daughters in the family's reinforced safe room, urging them not to cry as gunfire echoed just outside the door. With his cell phone battery running low, Amir texted his father: "The girls are behaving really well, but I'm worried they'll lose patience soon and Hamas will hear us."

Some 45 miles north, Amir's parents had just cut short an early morning swim along the shores of Tel Aviv. Now, they jumped in their Jeep and sped toward Nahal Oz, armed only with a pistol but intent on saving their family at all costs.

In The Gates of Gaza, Amir Tibon tells this harrowing story in full for the first time. He describes his family's ordeal--and the bravery that ultimately led to their rescue--alongside the histories of the place they call home and the systems of power that have kept them and their neighbors in Gaza in harm's way for decades.

Woven throughout is Tibon's own expertise as a longtime international correspondent, as well as more than thirty original interviews: with residents of his kibbutz, with the Israeli soldiers who helped to wrest it from the hands of Hamas, and with experts on Gaza, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the failed peace process. More than one family's odyssey, The Gates of Gaza is the intimate story of a tight-knit community and the broader saga of war, occupation, and hostility between two national movements--a conflict that has not yet extinguished the enduring hope for peace.

Review Quotes

"Eloquent... scathing... A wide-ranging survey of Israeli history expressed through the drama of a single day and the claustrophobic politics of a small country... [Tibon] reports events with admirable calm, where his own peril is concerned, and cool fury directed at the failures of his country's leaders.... Given what Tibon personally endured - the friends killed and kidnapped by Hamas - he shows an impressive capacity for analytical detachment.... There is a readership that recognises the validity of conflicting perspectives; that doesn't want complex events distilled into easy parables of moral righteousness. That audience, despairing of the way so much Middle East coverage is drained of historical context and nuance, will find some solace in The Gates of Gaza."--The Guardian

"Propulsive and poignant...Seamlessly blending a history of Gaza with the harrowing events of October 7, Tibon highlights how, for more than 100 years, the Strip has destabilized the region and warped both Israeli and Palestinian society...Tibon adds important and meticulous detail, providing the definitive account of the ordeal in Nahal Oz, where the terrorists would murder 3 percent of the community and take another 2 percent as hostages."--Commentary Magazine

"[The Gates of Gaza] reads like a thriller, a page-turner full of danger and bravery but nonetheless a true story, which also paints the bigger picture."--The Irish Times

"Tibon... spent the day trapped with his wife and two young daughters in the safe room of their house in Kibbutz Nahal Oz while their neighbors were shot and their houses set on fire.... But despite the genuinely heroic story Tibon describes of his father surviving ambushes and gunfights to reach them, my focus kept shifting to the drama of the little girls--Galia, 3 and a half, and Carmel, almost 2--sitting in the darkness of the safe room."

--The Atlantic

"Extraordinary... multifaceted... a gripping account."--Jewish Renaissance

"Tibon describes how he hid silently in a dark room with his wife and two young daughters for 10 hours while Hamas militants attacked his community... The details of his family's ordeal are excruciating. I held my breath as I worried about Tibon's younger daughter -- at 11/2, basically the same age as my son -- being able to keep quiet as gunfire resounded through the kibbutz."--Max Strasser, The New York Times Book Review

"The Gates of Gaza flawlessly weaves history and adventure together so the reader - although we know there was a successful outcome - is still gripped with fear for the Tibon family, trapped for 10 hours in the safe room of their kibbutz home. It is the stuff of nightmares."--Jewish News

"To say [The Gates of Gaza] is gripping is an understatement; it reads like a thriller.... My heart was in my mouth.... This is an important book."--The Jewish Chronicle

"Superb. A visceral, heartbreaking and powerful account--with personal testimonies and deep research--of the October 7 Hamas invasion, massacres and atrocities committed that day. Essential reading for anyone who wants to know what exactly happened."--Simon Sebag Montefiore Author, The World: a Family History of Humanity

"In The Gates of Gaza, Amir Tibon recounts both his own story of rescue on October 7, as well as the complicated history of the Israeli-Gaza border region that he calls home. He is a chronicler, an observer, and a participant in this story, which he tells with real emotional power."--Anne Applebaum, author of Red Famine

"Amir Tibon survived the October 7th Hamas attack on his kibbutz thanks to his father, who jumped in a car, drove south from Tel Aviv--dodging rockets and bullets--and pulled off a daring rescue of Amir and his young family. As a newspaper journalist, Amir brings a reporter's eye to this vivid, truthful, and at times emotional account--not only of the fear and terror of that day, but also of life along the Israeli border with Gaza, and of the struggle between the Jews and Palestinians. The Gates of Gaza is both sweeping and deeply personal; it is grand and granular, historic and suspenseful, compassionate and wise."--Lesley Stahl, correspondent, 60 Minutes

"More than an account of horror, Amir Tibon's riveting book is a story of courage. Tibon's extraordinary family and community offer a glimpse into Israel's resilience, and help explain why it may be premature to despair over the hope for peace."--Yossi Klein Halevi, senior fellow, Shalom Hartman Institute, author, Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor

"Amir Tibon has captured the horror and hope of October 7 in this compelling story of Hamas' murderous rampage across southern Israel, of his family's agonizing experience in their safe room while terrorists roamed outside, and of the heroism of his father, Noam, who came to their rescue. The Gates of Gaza would be an engrossing read if it were fiction; the fact that it is a true story is simply extraordinary."--Daniel Kurtzer, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel and Egypt

"A riveting minute by minute account of one of Israel's darkest days, Amir Tibon's telling of his family's horrific ordeal -- hiding for hours while terrorists overtook his kibbutz -- is captivating. His father's heroic mission to rescue them, woven together with the storied and bloodied history of the kibbutz, makes for a remarkable read."--Bianna Golodryga, Anchor and Senior Global Affairs Analyst, CNN

About the Author

Amir Tibon is an award-winning diplomatic correspondent for Haaretz, Israel's paper of record, and has previously served as the paper's correspondent in Washington, D.C., and as a senior editor for its English edition. He is the author of The Last Palestinian: The Rise and Reign of Mahmoud Abbas (co-authored with Grant Rumley), the first-ever biography of the leader of the Palestinian Authority. He, his wife, and their two young daughters were evacuated from their home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz after the October 7 attack, and are currently living in temporary housing in north-central Israel.