Long before October 2023, Gaza’s people suffered international sanctions, a humiliating occupation, and periodic Israeli bombardments. Few could leave the enclave, even for medical care; the destruction of crucial infrastructure meant that clean water and electricity were intermittent; and thousands of men, women, and children were killed in periodic wars. Even peaceful protests were met with lethal gunfire. But Palestinians still managed to carve out livelihoods in Gaza, and sustain a rich community life. There were drama, music, and dance performances and beaches crowded with picnicking families. Fishermen, when not fired on or arrested by the Israeli navy, landed sardines, tuna, and other Mediterranean delicacies, and farmers continued an eight-thousand-year tradition of tending olive trees and raising sheep, goats, and chickens. The war turned this world into some sixty million tons of rubble. Last summer, writes the architect and human rights investigator Eyal Weizman, the Strip was blanketed with “enormous dust clouds containing particles of the different materials that formed the building[s] and [their] environment—concrete, plaster, paint, glass, metal, sand, soil—some of which are synthetic …