In October 2023, Abu Toha, his wife and his children evacuated their home in
Beit Lahiya, Gaza, and moved to the
Jabaliya refugee camp after Israel warned it would bomb Beit Lahiya. In a
New Yorker article published 6 November, Toha wrote that he had ridden his bicycle to Beit Lahiya in an attempt to retrieve some books from the collection in his home. However, their home and the surrounding area were destroyed. Israel later also bombed Jabaliya, seventy meters from where they were. Mosab Abu Toha was good friends with the poet
Refaat Alareer who was killed by an Israeli airstrike on 7 December 2023. On 22 January 2024,
Amy Goodman asked Toha to speak about Alareer's significance and how he died. He responded by saying first that his death was not unique and that at this time and that Alareer's body is still under the rubble. He also shared: "I'd like to remember Refaat as someone who was always ready to listen to our literary works. He liked to read some of
Shakespeare's sonnets, of
John Donne's poems. He was a huge fan of John Donne. I would like to remember Refaat as someone who loves – who loved to go to strawberry farms and pick strawberries with me and play pun games. Refaat is someone who didn't want to die."
Detention by Israeli forces while evacuating On 19 November 2023, Abu Toha was detained by
Israel Defense Forces while he was heading to the
Rafah border crossing in an attempt to evacuate from the Gaza Strip with his family. Initial reports attributed it to his recent high-profile writings. He had been told by American officials that he and his family would be able to cross into Egypt, since his three-year-old son is a US citizen. The Israeli military detained him at a checkpoint as he attempted to leave the north of Gaza for the south. Conveying an account from Abu Toha's wife, Buttu told
Time: “He was forced to put his son down … They were all forced to walk with their hands raised in the air. He raised his arms in the air … [and he and] around 200 others were taken out of this line and abducted. They have not heard from him since.” Free speech organization
PEN America called for his protection, On 21 November 2023,
Democracy Now! reported that Abu Toha had been released after being taken to an Israeli prison in the
Negev and beaten, according to a statement from Buttu. He was taken to a hospital due to his injuries. In a 2024 article in
The New Yorker, Abu Toha described his move to
Syracuse, New York, and the lingering impacts of his arrest, including secondary screenings in airports and a visit from
FBI agents.
Targeting by Betar US Far-right pro-Israel group
Betar US sent Toha's name to the
second Trump administration, recommending his arrest and deportation. After Abu Toha won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize, Betar again called for his deportation and described him as a "
jihadi".
2025 Pulitzer Prize In 2025, Abu Toha's essays on the Gaza war in
The New Yorker won the
Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. The prize cited his essays "on the physical and emotional carnage in Gaza that combine deep reporting with the intimacy of memoir to convey the Palestinian experience" of the war. The four essays cited in the award covered the Gaza landscape, the
Jabalia refugee camp, difficulties finding food in Gaza and the scrutiny experienced by Abu Toha while travelling in the US. On winning the prize, Abu Toha said, "It is my biggest hope that this achievement and recognition will be a step toward greater understanding of the decades-long plight of the Palestinian people and that it will inspire people, especially those in power, to act and put an end to this tragedy."
Family deaths On 1 August 2025, Abu Toha reported that his father-in-law was wounded by Israeli shrapnel in his brain near the
Zikim crossing. His father-in-law died from his injuries on 3 August. ==Social media==