we are not numbers

emerging writers from Palestine tell their stories and advocate for their human rights

Nadera Raied Mushtha

Gaza Strip

Nadera Raied Mushtha is a poet and writer who was born and raised in the Shujaiya neighborhood of Gaza City. Her family is originally from Gaza. In the fall of 2023, she started her third year in the English Language Education Department at Islamic University where she was a student of Dr. Refaat Alareer. Since most schools in Gaza have been destroyed during the current war, she has been organizing English classes for children in her neighborhood.

Current as of July 2024

my work

The mirror

The Omar Al-Mokhtar Street market is not the one we knew before the war; now it is a mirror reflecting our souls.

Nadera Raied Mushtha

Gaza Strip

November 24, 2024

Where were you, Mama?

They burned me, Mama / My heart was crying / Because my eyes melted / From the fire.

Nadera Raied Mushtha

Gaza Strip

November 12, 2024

The new Gaza

I heard the voice of myself / in the middle of war and death / wondering if I was a ghost.

Nadera Raied Mushtha

Gaza Strip

September 12, 2024

The end of the olive harvest

Our family’s traditions and my grandfather’s life were destroyed by war.

Nadera Raied Mushtha

Gaza Strip

August 17, 2024

The kite

There is the green of the trees / While a child bleeds on the street.

Nadera Raied Mushtha

Gaza Strip

August 4, 2024

The child and the olive tree

A child is born / and comes to his life / somewhere in Gaza.

Nadera Raied Mushtha

Gaza Strip

July 21, 2024

When the spring came

The entire street was reduced to a gray-black expanse of ash by Israeli airstrikes. But nature had the last say.

Nadera Raied Mushtha

Gaza Strip

July 17, 2024