Omar Abu Shawish


Omar Fares Abu Shawish was a Palestinian poet, journalist, social activist and novelist. He was a well-known social activist at the Nuseirat refugee camp. He was killed at the refugee camp by an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza war.
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Biography

Abu Shawish was born in the Nuseirat refugee camp on 22 March 1987. His family are refugees from Barqa, Gaza, which was occupied and depopulated on 13 May 1948 during Operation Barak, a Yishuv offensive in southern Palestine just prior to the outbreak of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. He received a bachelor's degree in journalism from Al-Azhar University, Gaza. He was a member of the General Union for Palestinian Writers and the People's Committee for Refugees. He was a co-founder of the Palestine Youth Cultural Network. He also wrote a number of patriotic and humanitarian songs, which spread widely during the Gaza War (2008–2009).
He won several local and international awards, including:
He published a number of collections of poetry, and a novel, titled Alā qayd al-mawt, which was published by Bayt al-Yasmin in 2016. His novel was critically received in Palestine. The book was republished by Al Manhal in 2018.
On 7 October 2023, he was killed in an Israeli airstrike which hit his home in Nuseirat Camp during the Gaza war.

Works

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