We Are Not Numbers by Ahmed Alnaouq

We Are Not Numbers

The Voices of Gaza's Youth

Ahmed Alnaouq, Pam Bailey

Interlink Publishing Group Inc · Print & ebook · September 2, 2025

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Who it’s for
First-person stories bring Gaza’s young people’s hopes, losses, and ambitions into close view.
Themes
Life under occupation and blockade, Recognition and human dignity, Hope and aspirations
Genres
Middle Eastern Politics, Human Rights, Arab & Middle Eastern Lives

About this book

"We Are Not Numbers is not just a book—it's my life, their life, and our shared story ... This is Gaza as it truly is, written by those who live it every day" —MOTAZ AZIZA "This book is a jailbreak and a miracle" —NAOMI KLEIN "Essential ... A project that insists on liberation" —TA-NEHISI COATES "Impossible to put down or forget" —RIZ AHMED A teenage girl stares at her roof, hoping it won’t collapse over her head.

Continue reading

A young student searches the Internet for photos of libraries around the world, hoping he’ll be able to visit them one day. Another walks around the city, taking notes of all the buildings she dreams of repairing. These are the stories of young people from Gaza, born under Israeli occupation and blockade. They are people who have endured unspeakable struggles and losses, who keep fighting to be recognized not as numbers, but as human beings with hopes, dreams, and lives worth living. We Are Not Numbers was founded in 2014 to give voice to the youth of Gaza. In this collection—vital, urgent and full of heart, spanning over ten years to the present moment—we gain an unparalleled insight into the past, as well as the current and next generation of Palestinian leaders, artists, scientists and scholars and imagine where we might go from here.

Lives Beyond Numbers

First-person stories bring Gaza’s young people’s hopes, losses, and ambitions into close view.

Come here for

  • Intimate voices shaped by occupation and blockade
  • The tension between hardship and imagined futures

Expect

  • A collection spanning more than ten years, through the present
  • Stories centered on young people’s lives, not abstractions

Where it sits

Middle Eastern Politics50%
Arab & Middle Eastern Lives47%
Human Rights38%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • Arab & Middle Eastern Lives
  • Indigenous Lives
  • Colonialism & Its Aftermath
  • Middle Eastern Politics
Show all 5 publisher categories
  • Genocide & War Crimes
Authors
Ahmed Alnaouq, Pam Bailey
Publisher
Interlink Publishing Group Inc
Published
September 2, 2025
Format
Print & ebook
Theme
Life under occupation and blockade · Recognition and human dignity · Hope and aspirations
Reading lane
Arab & Middle Eastern Lives