'Live-streamed genocide': Palestinian poet writes from Gaza's frontline

In Gaza, a child is not really a child. This stark observation from Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha, featured in The New Yorker's "Letters from Gaza" series, encapsulates the harrowing reality faced by families in the besieged strip. Abu Toha's journey, from the destruction of his home in Gaza to his detention by Israeli forces and eventual escape to the US, is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit amidst unimaginable conflict.

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In Gaza, a child is not really a child

His second poetry collection, "Forest of Noise," offers a raw and immediate portrayal of life during wartime. Having written half the poems before October 7, 2023, and the other half in the aftermath, Abu Toha captures the profound trauma of witnessing "my people, my friends and relatives and neighbours, being slaughtered." Poetry, he explains, is his chosen medium to express these experiences, offering an immediacy and depth that other forms cannot match.

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I wrote some poems while I was watching my people, my friends and relatives and neighbours, being slaughtered.

Abu Toha, the founder of Gaza's first English-language library, will share his work and experiences at the Sydney Writers' Festival. His story, and the poetry it has inspired, provides a crucial, personal perspective on the ongoing occupation and conflict. It highlights the power of art to bear witness and to convey the profound human cost of war, a perspective often lost in broader geopolitical narratives. This is not just about conflict; it is about the enduring human need to create and communicate, even in the face of devastation.

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For me, as an individual, as a writer, as an artist, it was very important for me to express myself using my art form, which is poetry.