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Shadows of Gaza: Stories I Couldn't Let Die

Book Reading with Unhae Langis and Dr. Rolla Alaydi

Langis presents the book "Shadows of Gaza," written by Dr. Alaydi's nephew.

Please join us for a book reading and discussion of Shadows of Gaza: Stories I Couldn't Let Die, by Salem Medhat Alaydi, a Gaza resident and relative of Dr. Rolla Alaydi. Dr. Alaydi is a Palestinian American and Pacific Grove resident, who has been working with lawyers to get her four younger brothers and their families out of Gaza.

Light refreshments will be provided. Copies of the book will be available for purchase. Registration is recommended, and walk-ins are welcome.

About the Book

I’m 18 years old, and I’ve spent my whole life in Gaza. My home was destroyed in 2023, and since then I’ve been living in a man-made tent. Through everything, the bombings, the hunger, the endless days of fear, I’ve carried my cell phone.

This book is my way of making sure the people I’ve met, the faces I’ve seen, and the stories I’ve heard don’t disappear into silence. Shadows of Gaza is filled with real photographs of real people - kids, parents, and grandparents taken between 2024 and 2025. These are not nameless faces. They have names, lives, and dreams. Some of them loved drawing, some wanted to be doctors or football players. Many of them faced the hardest days of the 21st century genocide, starvation, displacement.

Every page is a piece of our history, a history the world doesn’t tell you. These are our voices, our truth. We are Palestinians from Gaza. We are still here. This is not just my story, it’s the story of all of us who lived it. And I couldn’t let it die.