The Gates of Gaza: A Story of Betrayal, Survival, and Hope in Israel’s Borderlands

The author is a well-known Israeli journalist for the left-leaning newspaper Haaretz. This book presents his harrowing first-hand account of being trapped with his wife and two young daughters in a safe room on a kibbutz near the Gaza border on October 7, 2023, while armed Hamas terrorists stalked through their living room and shot up the rest of the house. But it doesn't stop there. Before losing power he managed to message his parents, who lived in Tel Aviv about an hour drive to the North on a normal day. In a twist worthy of a Hollywood movie, his father (a renowned retired army general) realizes that the army was caught completely unprepared, and decides to go and rescue his son and grandchildren himself. The way his day unfolds show more reads as the plot of a military adventure thriller, it's riveting, tragic, and borderline miraculous.

In addition to these two interweaved timelines, Tibon also provides extensive background history and context to Nahal Oz (the kibbutz where he lived with his family), and the fateful and disastrous decisions that allowed Hamas to perpetrate the Oct 7 attack. Since the book was written we've learned a lot more about the political and military failures, but none of that was known at the time. The people on the ground were forced to make life and death split decisions, and the heroism of some of those who fell defending the kibbutz is nicely commemorated in the book. As is the anguish of losing loved ones, whether murdered by the terrorists or taken as hostages into Gaza.

Essential reading for anyone interested in the events of Oct 7, and the factors that allowed it to happen, which are vital to understanding what's happened since, and the future challenges that await. And even if you don't care about any of that, it's still an excellent read. show less

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.