This Sunday, an unusual book launch will take place with the publication of Mohammed Omer’s Shell Shocked: On The Ground Under Israel’s Gaza Assault being marked by an event on the Gaza seafront, the scene last year of a deadly assault on the region.
The book is a diary of last year’s 51-day assault on the area during which 2,200 Palestinians were killed. The launch will be attended by representatives of the Gaza government, UN officials and members of prominent NGOs, and all copies available at the event have been printed locally in The Strip as a result of the blockade on the area ensuring that no copies could be shipped into Gaza. Omer, who is a journalist in the area, is storing all 1,000 copies printed by the company in his own car (as shown above) in the belief that it is the safest place to store them. Speaking about the book, Omer said: “It’s not just that the rest of the world has to be informed of what happened during the Israeli assault last year. The people in Gaza themselves, so many of whom lost their relatives and their homes, need to know that a record has been kept of the terrible time they endured and the bravery they displayed. That’s why it’s so important that my book is being published inside the Strip, for Gazans.” The book will be available in the UK in due course.
