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Bisan Owda
Bisan Owda (Arabic: بيسان عودة; born 1997 or 1998) is a Palestinian journalist, activist, and filmmaker. She is best known for social media videos documenting her experiences during the Gaza war in the Gaza Strip. For her Al Jazeera Media Network show, It's Bisan from Gaza and I'm Still Alive, she won a 2024 Peabody Award in the News category and an Edward R. Murrow Award for News Series, as well as a 2024 News and Documentary Emmy Award for Outstanding Hard News Feature Story: Short Form.
Owda grew up in Beit Hanoun. As a member of UN Women's Youth Gender Innovation Agora Forum, she has worked to promote gender equality. She has worked with the European Union on climate change and is an EU Goodwill Ambassador.[independent source needed] Owda also works for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
Owda produces a show for Roya TV called Hakawatia which explores Palestinian history and culture. She also presented educational Palestinian Arabic videos for the YouTube channel Easy Languages.
During the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis, Owda shared videos on Instagram to draw international attention to conditions in Gaza.
During the Gaza war, which began in October 2023, Owda garnered attention for her semi-regular video and livestream updates on social media documenting Palestinian civilians' experiences. She became known for opening her videos with some variation of the phrase, "I'm still alive". Her videos are mostly in English, though some are in Arabic. Her work has been shared by BBC News, Al Jazeera, and ABC News. In her videos, she has reported on Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) attacks, as well as the lack of food, shelter, medical care, and other resources. By May 2024, Owda had accumulated 4.1 million followers.
After the IDF told Gaza residents to evacuate from the North of Gaza in October 2023, Owda and her parents relocated from Beit Hanoun to Al-Shifa Hospital. Her family's home and her office in Rimal were both bombed, destroying all of Owda's filming equipment. As a result, Owda uses her phone to record video. From Al-Shifa Hospital, Owda reported on the spread of illness among the 50,000 displaced people who lacked adequate shelter, water, and sanitation.
On November 3, Owda witnessed the Al-Shifa ambulance airstrike. Owda documented the "increasingly critical situation" on social media, reporting a lack of food and water, destruction of solar panels, and bombings. She was displaced from Al-Shifa Hospital after it was sieged by the IDF in mid-November and reported that injured people were dying due to the lack of medical care. She posted videos of her journey walking south to Khan Yunis in which she described dead bodies on the side of the road and interviewed other refugees.
In early December, Owda posted: "I no longer have any hope of survival like I had at the beginning of this genocide". She also wrote about dealing with nightmares and illness. Her statement was cited in several news articles which referenced the killing of journalists in the Gaza war. Later that month, Owda posted that she had to cut her hair because she did not have adequate water or supplies to care for it. She also reported on the lack of bathrooms and menstrual pads in the Khan Yunis refugee camp.
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Bisan Owda
Bisan Owda (Arabic: بيسان عودة; born 1997 or 1998) is a Palestinian journalist, activist, and filmmaker. She is best known for social media videos documenting her experiences during the Gaza war in the Gaza Strip. For her Al Jazeera Media Network show, It's Bisan from Gaza and I'm Still Alive, she won a 2024 Peabody Award in the News category and an Edward R. Murrow Award for News Series, as well as a 2024 News and Documentary Emmy Award for Outstanding Hard News Feature Story: Short Form.
Owda grew up in Beit Hanoun. As a member of UN Women's Youth Gender Innovation Agora Forum, she has worked to promote gender equality. She has worked with the European Union on climate change and is an EU Goodwill Ambassador.[independent source needed] Owda also works for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
Owda produces a show for Roya TV called Hakawatia which explores Palestinian history and culture. She also presented educational Palestinian Arabic videos for the YouTube channel Easy Languages.
During the 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis, Owda shared videos on Instagram to draw international attention to conditions in Gaza.
During the Gaza war, which began in October 2023, Owda garnered attention for her semi-regular video and livestream updates on social media documenting Palestinian civilians' experiences. She became known for opening her videos with some variation of the phrase, "I'm still alive". Her videos are mostly in English, though some are in Arabic. Her work has been shared by BBC News, Al Jazeera, and ABC News. In her videos, she has reported on Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) attacks, as well as the lack of food, shelter, medical care, and other resources. By May 2024, Owda had accumulated 4.1 million followers.
After the IDF told Gaza residents to evacuate from the North of Gaza in October 2023, Owda and her parents relocated from Beit Hanoun to Al-Shifa Hospital. Her family's home and her office in Rimal were both bombed, destroying all of Owda's filming equipment. As a result, Owda uses her phone to record video. From Al-Shifa Hospital, Owda reported on the spread of illness among the 50,000 displaced people who lacked adequate shelter, water, and sanitation.
On November 3, Owda witnessed the Al-Shifa ambulance airstrike. Owda documented the "increasingly critical situation" on social media, reporting a lack of food and water, destruction of solar panels, and bombings. She was displaced from Al-Shifa Hospital after it was sieged by the IDF in mid-November and reported that injured people were dying due to the lack of medical care. She posted videos of her journey walking south to Khan Yunis in which she described dead bodies on the side of the road and interviewed other refugees.
In early December, Owda posted: "I no longer have any hope of survival like I had at the beginning of this genocide". She also wrote about dealing with nightmares and illness. Her statement was cited in several news articles which referenced the killing of journalists in the Gaza war. Later that month, Owda posted that she had to cut her hair because she did not have adequate water or supplies to care for it. She also reported on the lack of bathrooms and menstrual pads in the Khan Yunis refugee camp.