Dror Mishani is an Israeli writer born in 1975, who teaches literature at Tel Aviv University, having previously worked as an editor and contributor to the daily Haaretz. Most of his thrillers center on Avraham Avraham, a tenacious and tormented policeman who hunts down criminals in and around Tel Aviv. The first of these was brought to the big screen in 2018 by Erick Zonca as Black Tide.

In his latest book, Mishani has temporarily left this genre. His war diary, published in France under the title Au ras du sol (untranslated in English), plunges into the life of an Israeli family during the first months of the war against Hamas, but also into the author's reflections on the situation in his country and the role of literature.

In the wake of Israel's massive bombardment of Gaza on March 17 and 18, how do you feel?

I am horrified. If we continue the war against the Palestinians, the lives of the Israeli hostages in Gaza will be in even greater danger than they are today.

But I believe that this situation goes deeper and, above all, broader. Our lives here depend on our ability and willingness to stop this war – which has been waged for almost 18 months – and help the people of Gaza to build their lives and their homes again. If we don't stop, our children's lives will also be in danger, because the violence that rages on and on burns everything, and the fire we light will come back to haunt us.

Our democracy and freedom depend on our ability to stop this war now. That's why demonstrations against the government must focus on ending the war, not just freeing the hostages.

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