Book Review: The Martyrs Are Not Numbers
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In times
of war and genocidal massacres, the executioner always seeks to strip victims
of their humanity, to erase their features, and to reduce the souls that were
extinguished and the dreams that were buried into nothing more than cold
numbers scrolling across breaking news tickers.
From the
heart of this pain, and from beneath the rubble of collapsed homes, was born
the book "The Martyrs Are Not Numbers" by Gazan writer Yasmine
Anbar — a work that stands as a historical, literary, and human document, one
that refuses this deliberate erasure.
The book,
whose threads were woven under the fire of bombardment across 300 days of
genocide in Gaza, is not merely an elegy for the departed. Rather, as Sheikh
Hamid Al-Ahmar, Chairman of the Board of the International Jerusalem
Foundation, described it in his foreword: "a gateway of memory, and an
attempt to resurrect a hundred faces, a hundred dreams, and a hundred lights
that never went out.
The
author employed a unique and deeply affecting technique through first-person
narration — the voice of "I" — in which each martyr speaks for
themselves, as though recounting their own story from the heavens above or from
beneath the rubble.
With
remarkable skill, the writer weaves together precise journalistic documentation
— names of places, dates, massacres, professions — with a refined and tender
literary sensibility. This stylistic choice creates a state of profound
emotional identification, drawing the reader into the final moments of each
martyr as though breathing alongside them in their last, severed breaths.
The Book's Major Themes: A Mosaic of Palestinian Pain
The book
presents a hundred stories spanning every segment of Gazan society and the
diaspora, painting a complete portrait of a people being annihilated:
1- Stolen Childhoods and Buried Dreams:
The book
shines a light on children as the greatest victims of this holocaust, through
heartbreaking stories of dreams crushed beneath tank treads:
Hind Rajab: the little girl who summed up her dreams and treasured
possessions in a long list — soap bubbles, beautiful stories, dresses, and
rainbows — before the occupier assassinated her with 335 bullets.
Awni
Al-Dous: the boy who dreamed of reaching one million subscribers on his YouTube
channel, a dream that was only fulfilled after the rubble had swallowed him
whole.
Zain
Arouk: the child who had memorized the Quran, whose skull was shattered by an
airdropped aid parachute he had been waiting for, hoping to ease his siblings'
hunger.
Omar
Sharaf: the infant his parents waited seventeen years to welcome into the
world, who departed at just four months old.
Hamza
Al-Hassan: the boy who dreamed of becoming an astronaut, hoping to escape the
suffocating siege of Gaza on a rocket of his own, so that the universe might
hold what Gaza could not.
Malak
Haniyeh: who reached out to the sky for a loaf of bread, and received a missile
on the morning of Eid.
2- Knights of Truth and Guardians of the Word: Journalists and
Writers:
The book
devotes generous space to documenting the sacrifices of those who paid with
their blood for the sake of conveying the image and the word:
Refaat
Al-Areer: the writer and academic whose celebrated declaration "I am
not a number" rang out as a defiant cry, alongside poet Heba Abu Nada,
whose final tweet stands as a testament to the holocaust.
Anas Al-Sharif: the voice of the north, whom
they silenced by killing him and tearing out the very eye that had recorded
their crimes.
Ismail
Al-Ghoul: whose head was severed from his body in an attempt to silence his
voice — alongside Mustafa Thuraya, photographer Mariam Abu Dagga, and writer
Amina Hamid.
3- The White Army and Angels of Humanity: Doctors and
Paramedics:
The book
documents the occupation's deliberate targeting of scientific and medical
elites in order to erase the Palestinian mind and body:
Professor
Sufyan Tayeh: the physicist ranked among the world's top researchers on the
global academic stage.
Under
Torture: the book recounts the tragedy of doctors killed under brutal torture
in Sde
Teiman detention camp, among them orthopedic surgeon Adnan Al-Bursh
(Stones of the Valley), and imprisoned physician Iyad Al-Rantisi.
In the
Field: plastic surgeon Ahmed Al-Maqadmeh, who was executed alongside his
mother, a schoolteacher, at the Shifa Medical Complex; Professor Omar Farwana;
and paramedic Rifaat Ridwan, who documented the very moment of his own
execution with his phone camera, dismantling the occupation's lies frame by
frame.
4- The Brutal Faces of Death: The War of Starvation and
Subjugation:
Among the
most heartbreaking passages in the book is its documentation of deaths that go
beyond direct bombardment:
Death by
Starvation and the Search for Bread: such as martyr Khadija Abu Anza, the first
woman to be sniped while searching for a bag of flour for her children in the
death traps of Zikim.
Death by
Anguish and Terror: such as media figure Suad Sukik, singer Haya Murtaja, and
mother Mariam Nassar, whose hearts gave out under the crushing weight of
terror, loss, and the horrors of displacement.
Death by
Pain and Denial of Medical Care: such as karate champion Nagham Abu Samra,
whose feet were amputated and who died due to the absence of treatment, and
martyr Farid Darwish, who died poisoned by spoiled canned food.
5- The Extension of Pain: From the Nakba to the Genocide:
The book
draws a bridge between past and present, revealing the deep roots of the
Palestinian tragedy and the inheritance of its wounds across generations:
Elder Abd
Al-Fattah Abu Hasna (98 years old): the last living fedayeen fighter, displaced
from his village of Bashit during the Nakba, who kept his house key hanging
around his neck for decades — until he was killed in his displacement tent in
2024.
Ahmad
Al-Dura: killed twenty-four years after the death of his brother, the iconic
Mohammad Al-Dura, prompting their father to cry out once more: "my son
has died twice.
6- Leaders and Symbols:
The book
does not overlook the departure of national leaders and those who left an
enduring mark, recording the story of former Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh,
assassinated in Tehran after having already become a father and grandfather to
martyrs; field commander Fath Sharif in Lebanon; minister Jamila Al-Shanti; and
martyr Zahar Haniyeh, a living witness to two Nakbas, who departed carrying the
memory of both.
The Small Details: The Secret of the Greatest Pain
The
genius of the author lies in her capture of the small, hidden details nestled
within each story — details that shatter the coldness of numbers:
The
Cinnabon stained with blood in the hand of young martyr Sara Salman. The gold
earring donated by martyr and physician Samah Naim in her childhood. The
wedding dress that became a burial shroud for bride Ahlam Mustafa. The 5,000
frozen embryos destroyed in a fertility center before the killing of their
mother Fatima Jarad, who had dreamed of one day hearing the word "mama."
And the initiative of agricultural engineer Yusuf Abu Rabee, who planted mallow
seeds among the rubble to fight back against famine.
The Book's Essential Message
The book
closes with a clear message, one that Sheikh Hamid Al-Ahmar gave voice to: the
list is not finished, and thousands of stories remain buried beneath the
rubble, waiting for someone to dig through the wreckage and tell them.
"The
Martyrs Are Not Numbers" is a resounding Palestinian cry
in the face of a deaf world — a literary and historical plea that declares
every number in every news bulletin once represented a complete universe: a
father toiling to provide, a mother offering her embrace, a groom preparing his
home, a little girl dreaming of play.
Yasmine
Anbar, and behind her the International Jerusalem Foundation, have transformed
ink into pulsing blood, and paper into readable headstones — affirming that the
legacy of Gaza's martyrs will remain alive in defiance of forgetting, and that
they will never, never be mere numbers.
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also like:
Forgotten Gaza: Missing Needs and Daily Violations
‘The Voice of Hind Rajab’ Film: A Golden Globe Nominee
