On October 7, novelist Atef Abu Saif, also the Palestinian culture minister, woke up at his sister's home in Gaza City and went out with his 15-year-old son to the beach. As he writes in a new nonfiction book, this was probably his last chance to go swimming in the sea last year, and he didn't want to miss it. Suddenly, as he and his son were in the water, he heard explosions.
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