Yousef Maher Dawas

Their life

Yousef Maher Dawas was a young Palestinian writer, photographer, and aspiring psychoanalyst from Beit Lahia in northern Gaza. He was a member of the "We Are Not Numbers" (WANN) collective, which empowers Palestinian youth to share their personal narratives with the world. Yousef contributed essays to both WANN and The Palestine Chronicle, where his final piece, "Kidney Transplant and Rebirth: A Palestinian Love Story," was published. His writings often reflected on personal and communal loss, including the destruction of his family's orchard by an Israeli missile strike in May 2022. On October 14, 2023, Yousef and several family members were killed in an Israeli airstrike on their home in Beit Lahia. His death was mourned by the literary and activist communities, highlighting the profound human cost of the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

Yousef Maher Dawas was a gifted young Palestinian writer, photographer, and aspiring psychoanalyst from Beit Lahia in northern Gaza. He was a passionate member of the We Are Not Numbers (WANN) collective, an organization that empowers youth in Gaza to tell their personal stories to the world through creative nonfiction. Yousef's work reflected a deep sensitivity to the human condition and the emotional toll of life under siege. He often wrote about the trauma of war, the loss of loved ones, and the hope that persists amid devastation.

His final article, “Kidney Transplant and Rebirth: A Palestinian Love Story,” published in The Palestine Chronicle, captured his talent for blending the deeply personal with the universally human. In earlier essays, he described the destruction of his family’s orchard by Israeli missile fire in May 2022 — a symbol of both environmental and emotional loss that he eloquently memorialized in his writing.

Yousef had plans to continue his studies in psychology, with the goal of becoming a psychoanalyst to help others process trauma — a goal shaped by the pain he witnessed and endured in Gaza. Friends and colleagues remember him as kind, thoughtful, and full of potential, with a unique voice that brought Gaza’s human stories to the world.

On October 14, 2023, Yousef was killed in an Israeli airstrike that struck his family home in Beit Lahia. The attack also took the lives of multiple members of his family. His death was a profound loss not only to those who knew him but also to a wider community that found truth, resilience, and humanity in his words.

How they died

Yousef Maher Dawas was killed on October 14, 2023, in an Israeli airstrike that targeted his family home in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza.

Yousef Maher Dawas was tragically killed on October 14, 2023, when an Israeli airstrike struck his family's home in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza. The missile strike resulted in the deaths of Yousef and several members of his family. The attack destroyed their residence, leading to the loss of multiple generations of the Dawas family.

Why we remember them

This record exists so that Yousef Maher Dawas, and all who are named in this archive, are never reduced to a number.

References & sources