Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer killed in Gaza strike

A 2014 image of Refaat Alareer, who was in Kuala Lumpur, to promote the 'Gaza Writes Back' book. Photo: The Star/Filepic

The Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer, one of the leaders of a young generation of authors in Gaza who chose to write in English to tell their stories, was killed in an Israeli strike, his friends said overnight on Thursday.

"My heart is broken, my friend and colleague Refaat Alareer was killed with his family a few minutes ago," wrote his friend, the Gazan poet Mosab Abu Toha, on Facebook.