Amir Tibon
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.  

In The Gates of Gaza, Amir Tibon 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. 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.

Sophie Stillman is a Minnesota native and a proud product of the Twin Cities Jewish community and Temple Israel family. After graduating from the University of Minnesota in 2017, Sophie made Aliyah. On October 7, 2023, Sophie was at Kibbutz Urim, a southern Israeli community just kilometers from the Gaza border. She and her host family endured 25 harrowing hours in a bomb shelter as Hamas launched an unprecedented and brutal attack on Israel, witnessing firsthand the devastating impact of that day.