Gideon Levy is an award-winning Israeli journalist, weekly columnist for the newspaper Haaretz, and child of Holocaust survivors. The Killing of Gaza was difficult to both read and rate. It begins with reports from 2014 and ends in May 2024. It was painful reading the details in early 2025, knowing that destruction continued long past May 2024, and with a ceasefire only just being announced while I was reading this book. The Killing of Gaza felt like a desperate, impassioned, but fatigued plea to Levy’s fellow Israeli’s to see past the propaganda to the reality of the situation. He frequently critiques other Israeli news outlets for reporting in a nationalistic and public relations style way, accusing them of doing the work of creating propaganda for the Israeli government when they don’t have to. Prior to 2006 Levy frequently visited the Gaza Strip to report, but after his last visit in November 2006, Israeli journalists were prohibited from entering and he hasn’t been back since. He often wonders what has happened to many of the people he met during his time reporting in the strip. The reports are detailed and harrowing, I was only able to read a few pages at a time. This isn’t a story of a hope, but a single man making a record so that his fellow countrymen cannot one day say “but we didn’t know what was happening”.

Thanks to Verso Books for the eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Gideon Levy is an Israeli journalist with a long career covering the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. This collection of essays spans about a decade of reporting, with the first third or so highlighting key pieces of political and news events that contextualize the events of October 7, 2023. I found these essays to be the most helpful in broadening my knowledge. This book is mostly geared towards an audience that is staunchly pro-Israel.

I struggled with some of his more moderate arguments, especially those that criticize the most egregious acts of settler-colonial violence while sidestepping the issue of the Israeli occupation. I found myself bogged down in the 2023 essays, as I am not the target audience who needs convincing of Israel's disproportionate and inhumane military response. Even so, I found the decade's worth of context particularly illuminating, and Levy's proximity to and firsthand experience in Gaza (albeit from some years ago, when journalists could more easily access Gaza) are singular and noteworthy.

The writing style was so dense, heavy, and repetitive I couldn't follow it. DNF. I don't deny this is a heavily important book, but it is not for me.

I had to read this one slowly—a bit at a time, early in the morning, before coffee, before the news, before the sun. As the title suggests, this is not a light read but it is an important one. It is a testimony to the lives destroyed and the voice of someone who has spent their entire career to say what needs to be said.

In this collection of columns, Haaretz columnist and Israeli citizen Gideon Levy delivers a critique of Israel’s policies toward Palestine and the dehumanization of the Palestinian people. So often, in these past 80+ years, the voices demanding the violent dismantling of Palestine have taken the stage and drowned out humanitarian voices. It was a balm to read Levy and to read the stories of Israeli’s like him who stand against what the world is doing to Palestine. I feel like this was so important.

With a sharp tone, Levy dissects the arrogance of an occupation built on violence and humiliation, asking how anyone could expect such oppression to hold. The pieces span the years before and after October 7, grounding policy analysis in the human cost of war. While of course angry and hurt at the events of October 7—Levy reported from the scenes of violence and interviewed survivors—he also reports on the horrors and truths of what has been happening to the people of Gaza.

What makes this book essential is its relentless focus on people—their stories, their losses, their survival. To me, one of the most striking columns follows the families of a single destroyed building, each testimony an indictment of a war that ruins what little chance people have to live. So often, lives are reduced to numbers. 48,239 lives lost as of this morning. But who were they? What were they before they were a number or a name on a sheet of paper or the worst thing that ever happened to them? What made them laugh? What were their dreams? Who did they love and who loved them back?

Thank you to NetGalley and VersoBooks :)

Gideon Levy’s The Killing of Gaza is a meticulously documented and harrowing chronicle of life and death in one of the most volatile regions on Earth. A collection of dispatches originally published in Haaretz, the book offers an unflinching portrayal of the human toll exacted by decades of siege, violence, and systemic dehumanization. With a journalist’s precision and a humanitarian’s heart, Levy turns his lens on Gaza, exposing its despair, resilience, and the cyclical violence that defines its existence.

The book opens with the catastrophic events of October 7, 2023, a day that changed the trajectory of the region and set the stage for the relentless violence that follows. Levy’s narrative is deeply personal yet rigorously factual, capturing the shockwaves of air-raid sirens in Tel Aviv and the collective trauma of a nation. Yet, his focus quickly shifts to the lesser-seen side of the border: Gaza, where destruction unfolds on an incomprehensible scale. This duality—Israel’s grief and Gaza’s agony—is central to Levy’s account, laying bare the asymmetrical nature of the conflict.


Levy spares no detail in his descriptions of the suffering endured by Gaza’s inhabitants. His recollections of visiting Gaza in the years before it became off-limits to Israeli journalists resonate with deep empathy and sorrow. From the nursery children who witnessed their teacher’s death to families obliterated by airstrikes, Levy portrays lives upended by a relentless siege. These stories are not merely statistics; they are vivid, haunting reminders of humanity lost amid geopolitical posturing.

One of the book’s most compelling aspects is its exploration of media complicity. Levy criticizes Israel’s media landscape for its role in perpetuating dehumanization and obfuscation. By focusing on Israeli heroism and victimhood, while erasing Gaza’s suffering, the media fosters an environment where war crimes become palatable to the public. Levy’s indictment extends to international players, whose apathy and unconditional support for Israel perpetuate the status quo.

Despite its grim subject matter, The Killing of Gaza is not devoid of hope. Levy highlights the resilience and humanity of Gaza’s people, even under unimaginable circumstances. He recalls fishermen sharing their last catch, families preserving traditions amidst ruins, and children holding on to fleeting moments of joy. These glimpses of life serve as poignant counterpoints to the destruction, illustrating a profound resistance to despair.


Levy also examines the broader implications of the conflict, delving into the collapse of the two-state solution and the grim reality of apartheid between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean. His call for international intervention is both a plea and a challenge, urging readers to confront the moral failures of inaction.

What makes The Killing of Gaza so impactful is Levy’s unrelenting commitment to truth. He does not sanitize or simplify; instead, he presents the messy, painful reality of a conflict that defies resolution. His prose is straightforward but charged with emotion, his arguments incisive yet grounded in humanity. This balance ensures that the book is both a searing critique and an essential testament to the lives caught in the crossfire.

The Killing of Gaza is not an easy read, nor is it meant to be. It demands engagement, reflection, and, perhaps most importantly, action. For those seeking to understand the human cost of the Gaza conflict and the moral urgency it entails, Levy’s work is indispensable.

This book offers a poignant and critical examination of the Israel-Gaza conflict from a dissenting Israeli perspective, which is both courageous and necessary for a fuller understanding of the situation. That said, the book is uniquely structured as a compilation of newspaper columns which may be overwhelming to some readers. I also found that it tended to be more of an "emotionally charged narrative" rather than a more balanced or solution-oriented discussion. While Levy's moral outrage is justified and his firsthand accounts are invaluable, his analysis sometimes lacks constructive proposals beyond the urgent call to stop the violence, potentially leaving readers feeling the weight of the tragedy without a clear path forward. Moreover, his relentless focus on Israeli culpability might not fully explore the complex dynamics involving Hamas and other Palestinian factions, which could provide a more rounded critique of the conflict's multifaceted nature.

Haaretz journalist Gideon Levy writes, “Israel’s media… conceal the occupation and whitewash its crimes. No one orders them to do this; it is done willingly, out of the understanding that this is what their consumers want to hear.” Overwhelmingly, The Killing of Gaza carries a sense of grief and anger, for Palestine and for what Israel has become.

I’m uncertain if it’s deliberate (though given the subtitle I believe it to be), but The Killing of Gaza is formatted, and reads, as a series of field dispatches. A sort of stream of consciousness. And while in some respects this is enlightening, in some ways it creates a disconnect, because the reader is many months ahead of the earliest entries. These are not articles Levy submitted for publication, but something more along the line of diary entries. Oftentimes, it reads like an extended rant more than anything else, and while I understand his anger and frustration and feel them fully justified, I can’t say that I believe publishing them in their original form, if that is indeed what this is, serves the intended purpose. They made me, in turns, sad, and angry, and tired. But I also found it increasingly jarring that the diary format has the reader finishing one impassioned entry only to then begin another in an entirely different sentiment.

The deeper I read into The Killing of Gaza, the more it felt as though Levy wrote and published it as an act of atonement, helplessly carrying the guilt of an entire nation on his shoulders. But that is my interpretation and may be wrong. I admire Gideon Levy for having the integrity and the courage to take this stand. I can only imagine what it has cost him. I agree with his stance and share his dismay and disgust. But I can’t help but feel that this book in its current form will not help him achieve his goal – which in itself is uncertain but seems to be to instigate action on the part of the international community. The book is informative and adds context to an ongoing situation that already moves many of us to outrage, and Levy’s passion for the subject is clear. But many of the entries are rife with bitter, sarcastic rhetoric that is more an angry diatribe than a “dispatch”, and while it’s easy to understand and empathize it’s difficult to read an entire book of it.

3.5⭐️

Disclosure: I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley and am posting a voluntary review.

It says a lot about our world that the first thing I did before writing this review was google Mr. Levy to see if he was, in fact, still alive. Props also to Verso for publishing this, because if nothing else it helps to have a primary source as Palestine is systemically destroyed. Collects reporting leading up to 10/23, and up to about May 2024 because of publishing deadlines. There is probably more, but if nothing else you hope that someone else besides you is reading this because holy shit.

This one just personally wasn't for me, I prefer a more narrative history book and didn't really care for the bite sized news articles. Definitely an interesting look into what's led to the current situation and very important to be informed about, but I'd rather get this information in a different format.

Gideon Levy’s journalism on Gaza from the last 10 years. Great compassionate and important writing on the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.

Gideon Levy, an Isr@eli award-winning journalist, has been reporting on the occupation for 35 years and is a vocal critic of Israel's cruel policies targeting the occupied territories and Gaza in particular.

The Killing of Gaza is divided into two parts. The first part begins in 2014 and details a range of atrocities inflicted on Gaza and its population, leading up to last October's attacks by Hamas. There's no denying that Hamas is a despicable organisation responsible for brutal attacks that have dire consequences for Gaza but it probably wouldn't exist if Palestine was free. Over time Gaza has become an unliveable open-air prison under the constant threat of the occupier.

The second part features Levy's columns in Haaretz (a left-wing/liberal Israeli newspaper) since October 9, detailing more examples of what he describes as "the standardization, legalization, and normalization of evil": attacks on hospitals, refugee camps, villages targeted by settlers in the West Bank, the senseless killing of innocent civilians including children and more.

"This is war, but in war, limits need to be set." Unfortunately, this seems to be lost on the IOF, and you wonder when this tragedy will end. Not even the prospect of becoming a pariah state or the damage this war/genocide is doing to their economy and the safety of their citizens will stop them, likely because they have the backing of a superpower + several Western governments and no one to stop them.
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This is a confronting and at times graphic read, but it's incredibly important to understand the current situation. I highly recommend it as well as Levy's 2010 book The Punishment of Gaza.

Thank you to VersoBooks for providing a digital ARC of this book for review consideration via NG in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Spanning a decade of Gideon Levy’s journalistic writings on Gaza, these articles flow with stunning prescience into the current situation. In fact, if it weren’t for the division into Part I, which opens with the July 2014 article ‘What Were We Thinking?’ and closes with the May 2023 article ‘Do You Really Want to Go On Living Like This?’, and Part II which takes us on from October 2023, one may have found it hard to realise the shock which accompanied the attacks.

Abandoning the rather startling initial impression that October 7th presented a break similar to the fall of the Berlin wall, Levy’s first piece following the attacks draws attention to the brutal conditions from which it was borne: “Israel Can’t imprison 2 Million Gazans Without Paying a Cruel Price”. Despite having condemned Hamas for many years, not least for the lack of provision offered to their own people, Levy here addresses himself to fellow Israelis who see “only their own suffering over and over”. It is this plea to a seemingly increasingly less receptive public which makes these articles so poignant. Though there is a censor, Levy reminds us that many have relinquished their objectivity voluntarily, that the supposed gulf between left and right is easily closed when an attack causes the “left” to “wise up”.

So, when touching, for instance, on the genocidal language of Giora Eiland, one of the IDF’s “thinking officers”, Levy not only criticises the initial realisation that epidemics in Gaza benefit Israel but asks why such a proposal was not met with outrage. “Dear friends and former friends:”, the final article of the collection opens, “It’s time to sober up from the sobering up.”

Given this and the unprecedented scale of Gaza’s “punishment”, it is incredible that Levy manages to retain an essential sense of individuality in his subjects. Whether it is the fear expressed in children writing wills in which they urge their parents not to mourn, or in the higher rates of bed wetting, Levy challenges us to see the implications of this genocide on an unbearably human level.

This discomfort restores more than one side’s humanity. As Levy concludes his article on Eiland’s contagion proposal: “International law is for the weak, morality for the philosophizers, humanism for the bleeding hearts. And really, what's wrong with a plague in Gaza? Only one thing: It could infect Israel, too. In fact, it already has.”

Thank you Verso Books for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I just finished The Killing Of Gaza: Reports On A Catastrophe, by Gideon Levy.

This is a collection of columns written by an Israeli journalist who is ashamed of how his country has acted towards Gaza. The author sums up the situation: “Since the first Lebanon war, more than 30 years ago, the killing of Arabs has become Israel’s primary strategic instrument. The IDF doesn’t wage war against armies, and its main target is civilian populations. Arabs are born only to kill and to be killed, as everyone knows. They have no other goal in life, and Israel kills them.”

Unlike in the United States, which tolerates no criticism of Israel by its politicians, media or other public figures, in Israel, you can criticize the government’s policies. You can criticize the atrocities. You can attack the man I used to refer as George W. Netanyahu before he stuck out long enough become Benjamin Trump. You can do all of that without the ridiculous accusations of anti-semitism. You can accept that “right to exist” means nothing other than Israel claiming for itself, with the assistance of the United States, to do whatever it is they want with impunity.

This book is an excellent series of articles calling out Israel’s actions in Gaza for what they are: acts of unjustified aggression and genocide against a civilian population.

I give this book an A. Goodreads and NetGalley require grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an A equates to 5 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).

This review has been posted at NetGalley, Goodreads and my blog, Mr. Book’s Book Reviews

I originally finished reading this on July 12, 2024.