RESTRICTION SUMMARY: Gaza - 09 November 2021. Palestinians sit inside a bookstore "coffee book" to read books and drink coffee and eat chocolate, in Gaza city.


0.1 SOUNDBITE (in Arabic) Yousef Hassouna, "coffee book" store owner.

STORYLINE:

The owner of the place, Youssef Hassouna (30 years), prepares coffee for customers, to serve it with pieces of chocolate to provide a calm and encouraging atmosphere for reading.

Hassouna explained that despite the newness of the place, the turnout was very high, as 40% of the existing books were sold in less than one week.

He believes that the reason is due to the need of the people of the Gaza Strip to read and books, as they are one of the most important ways of psychological discharge that a person needs in light of the pressures that he experiences on a daily basis.

Hassouna owns a large number of books, which he brings from publishing houses outside the Gaza Strip, apart from low-quality counterfeit commercial books that reduce the life of the book.

He aspires to expand his idea, which is the first of its kind in Gaza, to cover all parts of the Strip, which lacks such places of calm and relaxation.

Hassouna started this project a year and a half ago through the Internet only, and he had no place on the ground. In an attempt to develop his idea, he recently opened a coffee book in Gaza City.


Footage by APAwire