GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories — For decades, it was the place to go for books in the blockaded Gaza Strip, from school texts to the Koran to Arabic translations of European literary classics.
But last Tuesday, owner Samir al-Mansour watched in disbelief as the bookshop and publishing house he had poured his life into went up in smoke.
“Forty years of my life were obliterated in less than a second,” said the man in his 50s, a cigarette between his fingers, staring at a mound of concrete, paper and squashed plastic chairs.
“There are 100,000 books under this rubble,” he said.
At around 5:00 am on Tuesday, Mansour was at home watching television when the channel repor…
Keep on reading: Gaza bookshop owner’s dreams buried under the rubble