Israeli forces killed renowned Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer in Gaza
Friends of the Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer reported late on Thursday that he had died in an Israeli attack. Refaat was a leading figure in a new wave of writers in Gaza who decided to write in English to share their tales.
Mosab Abu Toha, a poet from Gaza, posted on Facebook, “My heart is broken, my friend and colleague Refaat Alareer was killed with his family a few minutes ago.” “I’d prefer not to accept this. Together, we cherished picking strawberries.
According to Hamas officials, Israel carried out further raids in the northern part of the Gaza Strip on Thursday night. A few days after Israel launched its ground attack in October, Alareer declared that he would not abandon northern Gaza, which was the center of fighting at the time.
The assassination of Refaat is awful, distressing, and ridiculous. His friend Ahmed Alnaouq said on X, “It is a huge loss.”
Rest in peace, Refaat Alareer, wrote author and journalist Ramzy Baroud on X, while the Literary Hub website also honored him. Your wisdom will continue to guide us both now and forever.
Alareer was one of the co-founders of the “We are not numbers” project, which pairs writers from Gaza with mentors abroad to help them write stories in English about their experiences. Alareer teaches English literature at the Islamic University of Gaza, where he teaches Shakespeare among other things.
The project released “Gaza Unsilenced” and curated the book “Gaza Writes Back,” which has memoirs from young Palestinian writers about life in Gaza.
Following an attack by Hamas on October 7, in which some 1,200 people were murdered, predominantly civilians, Israeli authorities began a massive military campaign in Gaza. The health ministry operated by Hamas reports that over 17,100 people, largely civilians, have perished as a result of Israel’s ceaseless shelling of the whole Palestinian region.
Tens of thousands of people shared Alareer’s poetry “If I must die,” which was published on X in November. “If I must die, let it bring hope, let it be a tale” is how it ends.
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