The Gates of Gaza, Amir Tibon
The Gates of Gaza, Amir Tibon
List: $31.99 | Sale: $22.40
Club: $15.99

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

Author: Amir Tibon

Narrator: Amir Tibon

Unabridged: 12 hr

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/24/2024

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

The gripping true story of how leading Israeli journalist Amir Tibon, along with his wife and their two young children, were rescued from Kibbutz Nahal Oz on October 7, 2023 by Tibon’s own father—an incredible tale of survival that also reveals the deep tensions and systemic failures that led to Hamas’s attacks that day.
 
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. With his cell phone battery running low, Amir texted his father: “The girls are behaving really well, but I’m worried they’ll lose patience soon and Hamas will hear us.”
 
Some 45 miles north, Amir’s parents had just cut short an early morning swim along the shores of Tel Aviv. Now, they jumped in their Jeep and sped toward Nahal Oz, armed only with a pistol but intent on saving their family at all costs.
 
In The Gates of Gaza, Amir Tibon tells this harrowing story in full for the first time. He 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. 
 
Woven throughout is Tibon's own expertise as a longtime international correspondent, as well as more than thirty original interviews: with residents of his kibbutz, with the Israeli soldiers who helped to wrest it from the hands of Hamas, and with experts on Gaza, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the failed peace process. 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.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Rachel on December 13, 2024

I listened to Amir Tibon narrate his own words on Audible, which gave an even greater sense of intimacy to his story. Tibon, a journalist at the left-leaning Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, lived for several years on the kibbutz Nahal Oz, located less than five miles from Gaza City. He spent ten hours on......more

Goodreads review by Adriel on December 29, 2024

I saw Amir’s viral tweets in the days following October 7th. But I’m not sure I had time to digest it, and God knows it’s been a long year. Amir regrets not waiting a moment before sending his first tweet, and here is the full story with the space and context that it deserves. The chapters alternate......more

Goodreads review by Gavin on September 30, 2024

A must read account of October 7 at Nahal Oz Amir Tibon found himself tragically caught up with the awful attacks of October 7 at his home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz. This book tells the story of that day for him and his family (he, a Haaretz journalist, his wife and two young kids, his father a retired gen......more

Goodreads review by John on February 02, 2025

Tibon, ironically, fatefully finds himself as a professional journalist ideally situated for the scoop of his life. He and his wife and two very young daughters lived, for nearly a decade, on the frontier of Gaza. Nahar Oz, about 45o residents, perches near the fence. So close that the Iron Dome can......more

Goodreads review by Daniel on February 16, 2025

Not sure I have the words to describe this. It is a first class work of narrative non-fiction like Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital, but the events in this book happened an hour away from where I live, a mere 500 days ago at time of writing this. I followed this in r......more


Quotes

“A riveting minute by minute account of one of Israel’s darkest days, Amir Tibon’s telling of his family’s horrific ordeal — hiding for hours while terrorists overtook his kibbutz — is captivating. His father’s heroic mission to rescue them, woven together with the storied and bloodied history of the kibbutz, makes for a remarkable read.”—Bianna Golodryga, Anchor and Senior Global Affairs Analyst, CNN

“Amir Tibon has captured the horror and hope of October 7 in this compelling story of Hamas’ murderous rampage across southern Israel, of his family’s agonizing experience in their safe room while terrorists roamed outside, and of the heroism of his father, Noam, who came to their rescue. The Gates of Gaza would be an engrossing read if it were fiction; the fact that it is a true story is simply extraordinary.”—Daniel Kurtzer, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel and Egypt